Dawn of Devastation
by USEChairman
Summary: Far away, in the deserts of Egypt, something is coming. A new threat, a new weapon, that could turn the tide of the war between Autobots and Decepticons forever and throw Earth into chaos. Can Optimus Prime and his small team of Autobots fight back, or will they fail, and leave their new home to fall into Devastation?
1. Chapter 1

"Patrols, patrols, patrols." Jack Darby huffed, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. "What do you Bots do when you aren't patrolling?"

Arcee smiled and rolled her optics as she watched her young, human friend pull himself to the top of the final stone. "You're the one who asked if you could come."

"Well, yeah." He said, walking up to the blue femme's side. "I just thought that visiting Egypt would be a bit more exciting than this."

However, as the teen cast his eyes from the two-wheeled Autobot, and looked out over the endless, shimmering desert, highlighted by the ancient majesty of the Egyptian pyramids, he found himself having a sudden change of heart.

"Okay," he said. "That is really cool."

"I've got to admit." Arcee said, putting a servo on her hip. "Even though you humans are small, you can build some pretty impressive things."

"Too bad Raf isn't here. I bet he would've loved this."

"What about Miko?"

Jack smiled and shrugged. "Nothing's exploding. I think she'd be bored out of her mind."

Arcee glanced over the edge of the pyramid that they were standing on. "What were these things for? Did these Egypt people live in them?"

"Uh, no. Not really. They were tombs, where they buried dead people."

Arcee suddenly flinched, and looked down at her peds in disgust. "We're standing on top of dead humans?"

"No, just one."

"What?"

"I think that they only buried one guy in each pyramid."

"Just one?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"All of this," she asked, gesturing to the other towering structures. "For one human each?"

"I guess so."

Arcee shook her helm. "Seems like a waste of space."

"I guess." He responded with a shrug. "But I think that they were all like kings, and pharaohs and stuff."

"Ah," She said, crossing her arms. "So they just had a Megatron Complex?"

Jack laughed. "Yeah. Pretty much."

The human and the Cybertronian both stood quietly for a moment, each taking in the beauty of the Egyptian desert under the falling sun. However, when the moment passed, Arcee spoke up.

"C'mon kid, we're not patrolling if we're not moving."

The femme began to walk back towards the edge of the pyramid.

"Wait, what? But we just got up here!"

She turned around and smirked. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to have a picnic?"

Jack smiled and shrugged. "I didn't bring any sandwiches."

"Of course. Listen, I'm sorry Jack, but…"

She stopped speaking suddenly as a voice spoke on the COMM. She put a silver finger on the side of her helm to answer. "Arcee here."

Jack could barely hear Ratchet's gruff voice coming through the other end. "What's…"

Arcee quietly shushed him. "No, it's been pretty uneventful." She listened for a moment. "No, we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. Why?"

"Uh, Arcee?"

She shushed him again. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Arcee? Hey, I think…"

She shushed him once again. "What do you mean you're getting a reading out here? We haven't seen anything…"

"Arcee!"

"What?" She asked at last.

With his head pointed to the sky, Jack slowly pointed up. Arcee's optics followed, until they caught sight of a yellow, shimmering streak, falling through the air like a shooting star. The thing fell faster and faster, until it exploded into the ground with a flash, a little more than a mile from where the two were standing.

"Uh, Ratchet?" Arcee said. "I think we're going to have to get back to you."

Jack smiled. "Does this mean we can't have our picnic?"

The femme smiled, before bending down and transforming into a slick, blue motorcycle. "Hop on."

Jack compiled, throwing his leg over the other side, and grabbing hold of her handlebars. "Wait a minute. Shouldn't we climb down first?"

If she wasn't in her vehicle mode, the blue two-wheeler would have grinned mischievously. "Hold on!"

Revving up in a flash, with her wheels spinning, she suddenly shot out over the edge of the tall pyramid, careening down the sloped side at a blinding speed. Jack screamed in terror at first, but when Arcee's back wheel bounced off the first block of limestone with a crash, he found himself suddenly silenced.

 _That's going to hurt tomorrow,_ he thought, pressing his thighs together in pain.

Bouncing down each level, the human and Cybertronian two-wheeler flew down the pyramid, until her wheels hit the soft sand of the desert. Pivoting quickly, she faced the direction they needed to go, and they were off, speeding towards the crash site of the mysterious object.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the wreckage of a crashed ship far away, another Cybertronian who was monitoring signals across the planet happened to pick up the very same one.

"Interesting." Starscream mused, keeping his optic on the Harbinger's screen as it scanned the foreign object. "Energon readings, and Decepticon life signals. It would seem as though the poor Autobots will soon have to deal with even more adversaries."

His sly smile drooped. "Of course, that means I may have to deal with them as well. Bah!" He exclaimed, throwing up his arms. "Curse you, Megatron. You think you can throw me away? Turn my own allies against me? I'll show you, oh, I'll show you."

The castaway seeker began typing furiously, his long, claw-like digits moving up and down in rhythm. Though the Harbinger was a relatively old Decepticon warship, it still possessed information on most of the important figures, as well as ways to track their life signals. Starscream found this very useful to his cause, since he could track his "fellow" Decepticons whenever they were on the move.

However, as the seeker finally managed to zone in on the identity of the strange signal, he found himself both intrigued, and uncomfortably nervous.

"Oh my…" He murmured. "It's them…"

* * *

"What is it?" Jack asked, as he and Arcee skidded to a stop, a short ways away from the crash site. He jumped off, and the two-wheeler transformed back to her bipedal mode. The object had crashed next to what looked like an excavation site, with multiple construction vehicles surrounding one of the pyramids.

"I don't know." She answered, stepping forward, with the human following just behind. "I don't recognize the ship."

The object at the bottom of the crater was in fact a ship; a large, yellow spacecraft that looked as though it could fit all of Team Prime rather comfortably.

"Is it Decepticon?"

"I really don't know, Jack." Raising her arm, the femme brought up her arm-blaster and pointed it at the ship. "But better safe than sorry. Stay here."

Jack nodded, watching as his Autobot partner stepped carefully towards the downed ship. As he watched, he suddenly had a nasty feeling of deja vu, since it wasn't too long ago that the duo had stumbled across Arachnid's crashed ship, which had very nearly ended in his own death. Nevertheless, he trusted Arcee, and knew she could handle herself.

The blue two-wheeler was also feeling uncomfortable, since she didn't recognize the design of the strange ship. Keeping her optics and blaster glued to the wreck, she activated her COMM. "Arcee to base. Do you copy?"

She heard Ratchet's reply in her receptor. "Copy. What do you see?"

"It's a ship alright. I can't see any movement."

"Can you tell who it belongs to?"

Carefully, the blue femme slid down the uprooted sand and dirt, and walked carefully towards the wreck. She outstretched a servo, and wiped away the grime caking the hot steel, to reveal a familiar, purple insignia.

"It's definitely Decepticon." She whispered, quickly stepping backwards, even more alert than before. "I think I'd like some backup."

"Noted. Stay low, I'll gather the team."

"Roger."

As quietly as she could, Arcee climbed back up the crater to Jack, who was waiting patiently.

"It's Decepticon?" He whispered as she crouched down next to him.

She nodded. "Yeah, it looks like it."

"You don't know who?"

She shook her helm. "Whoever it is, we can't let Megatron find them and pick them up. That buckethead's got enough followers as it is. We can't afford him getting even more backup."

Jack nodded, still carefully observing the strange ship as they waited for the rest of the team. "Are you getting a bad feeling about this?"

The usually fearless two-wheeler frowned. "A little."

* * *

Not long afterwards, a green, swirling vortex sprung up a short ways away from the duo. From out of the Ground Bridge walked three more towering Cybertronians: Bulkhead, the massive green Wrecker; Bumblebee, the gold and black scout; and Optimus Prime himself, the towering red and blue commander of all Autobot forces, and the last of the Primes.

The latter walked up to his second-in-command and her human ward. "Has anything come out of the wreckage?"

Arcee shook her helm. "It's been quiet. All of the hatches are shut, so I assume whatever was in there hasn't left."

Optimus nodded with his optics scanning the frame of the ship. He was obviously deep in thought.

"Well, whoever it is, we'll send them back to the scrapheap before Megatron gets his claws on them." Bulkhead declared, transforming his servo into a massive, steel wrecking ball.

Bumblebee let out a few whining beeps, at which Optimus nodded thoughtfully. "Bumblebee is right: We must not assume hostile intentions, until it becomes clear that is their motive. We do not yet know if the crew even survived the crash."

A voice suddenly broke through the relative silence. "Survived the crash!?"

Too slow, Optimus turned around to see a yellow front-end loader come barreling towards him. Before even he could react, the Prime found himself knocked off his peds, and falling forward into the loader's scoop. "Give us more credit than that, Prime!"

The front-end loader picked up speed, before throwing it's scoop upwards, hurling the Autobot commander high into the air, before he came crashing down to the ground.

"Optimus!" Arcee cried, before jumping forward to try to save him. But before she could move, she felt something wrap around her legs, knocking her off her peds onto her faceplate.

She landed with a grunt, and quickly scrambled around, to see a yellow and purple crane, with its long, steel cord twisted around her ankle-joints.

"Look what I caught!" Said a voice that came from the crane. "A little, blue Autobot!"

"Arcee!" Jack cried out, running forward to help her.

He and Arcee both furiously tried to unravel the thick cord from her legs, until they saw with a jolt that the sharp hook at the end of the rope was imbedded into her ankle-joint.

"Scrap!" She cursed, as the crane suddenly began to drive away, dragging her harshly across the ground away from Jack's help.

Meanwhile, Bulkhead and Bumblebee were having their own problems. The green Wrecker had tried to run forward to help Optimus, only to be barreled into by a massive, yellow dump truck, knocking the sturdy 'Bot to his rear. Quickly, he tried to climb back to his peds, only to be knocked over again by a huge, yellow bulldozer.

Bumblebee let out a series of concerned beeps, and ran forward to try to help his friends. But before he knew what had hit him, he felt something large and strong bash into him from behind. He fell forward onto his faceplate, as he heard a high, squeaky voice taunt. "Do you want another, Autobot?"

Quickly, the scout tried to climb back to his peds, but before he could, he heard a sticky, sickening splat. He looked down to see that his servos had been caked in a thick, grey substance, that was quickly hardening.

And just like that, Team Prime had been incapacitated, each one struck down before they even had a chance to fight back.

Groaning in pain, Optimus tried to climb back up, before he felt a pressure on his chestplate push him back down.

"It's been a long time, Prime."

Optimus focused his optics to see a burly, yellow and purple bot standing on top of him, with a smile plastered across his faceplate.

"Scrapper." Optimus groaned.

"Bingo. And not just me, the whole team's here too!"

He gestured proudly around at the rest of the aggressive construction vehicles, who had at last transformed to reveal their true form. "Say hello to the Constructicons!"

Hook, a tall and thin bot with a long sword on his back still had Arcee tangled by his hook, which was extending from where his right servo should be.

Bulkhead, who was usually unmatched in strength, was being held down by two massive yellow bots: Bonecrusher, a bulldozer who boasted a huge drill on his left arm; and Long Haul, a dumptruck who didn't possess any weapons, but was by far the largest of the six Constructicons.

The grey substance around Bee's servos had hardened, making him unable to fight back as Mixmaster, a thin bot who carried a cylindrical cement mixer on his back, proudly put a ped on the scout's back as though he was a hunting trophy.

And last of all, Scavenger, an excavator and the smallest of the six, had a struggling Jack clenched tightly in his servo. "Don't struggle, little thing," he said in his high, squeaky voice. "Or I may have to dig you an early grave."

"Jack!" Arcee cried out in concern, still struggling against Hook's hook.

"Scrapper!" Optimus bellowed. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Well, Prime. It's really quite simple. We work for Megatron, and so we do what he want us to."

"And he wants us to crush every Autobot in his way!" Bonecrusher bellowed.

"And too long have we waited for this chance." Mixmaster said. "To deliver the head of Optimus Prime himself. The glory that we will receive, the praise that Megatron will bestow upon us!"

He bowed down slightly, holding out his servos as though he was already imagining himself presenting Megatron his new trophy.

"If you ask me," Hook said with a snide look. "Megatron was just too soft to take them out in the first place. Look how easily we took them down."

"Maybe Megatron will finally see just how valuable we are!" Scavenger said hopefully.

"Shut up, Scavenger." Long Haul growled.

"Cut it out!" Scrapper yelled, before bending down to face Optimus again. "So, what will it be, Prime? Should we end this now, or should I keep your Spark online so Megatron can snuff it out himself?"

"Scrapper," Optimus said calmly. "You do not have to do this. We were once allies, and we can be so again. Serving Megatron will only result in your own destruction."

"Don't make me bored, Prime. I've heard it before, and it didn't end any better for you then than it did now."

"Wait," Jack said, still clamped in Scavenger's grip. "These guys actually beat you?" He was amazed, as he had always believed Optimus to be the greatest Cybertronian warrior ever, on par with only Megatron himself.

Hook however just laughed. "Beat him? We humiliated him! An entire squadron under his command, and we devastated every last one! It was Prime's greatest defeat!"

"Pardon Hook." Scavenger not-so-subtly whispered to Jack. "He's a bit of a… what's the word Mixmaster?"

"Ego maniac." The cement mixer said with a smile.

"Hah!" Hook laughed. "You clowns have no idea what I do for you! If it weren't for me, we'd all…"

They didn't get a chance to find out what would happen, as Hook suddenly found himself being swept off his peds. Arcee, who had managed to remove the hook from her ankle joint, had jumped up and with all her might, pulled on the rope connected to the Constructicon. With a cry, Hook was pulled toward her, until he was stopped when her fist came into contact with his faceplate. The Constructicon crane, dazed, couldn't fight back as Arcee kicked his legs out from under him, sending him to the ground.

"What the…" Scrapper said, taking some attention away from Optimus. That was his mistake, as the Autobot commander grabbed hold of his leg, and hurled the Constructicon leader off of him. He landed with a grunt on his rear, and recovered just in time to counter a mighty punch being thrown by the red and blue semi.

Meanwhile, Arcee was racing towards Bulkhead's captors. With a ferocious cry, she lept into the air, and aimed a kick towards Long Haul's faceplate. Her ped connected, and the huge dump truck was knocked backwards, releasing his grip on the Wrecker. Bulkhead took this opportunity to punch Bonecrusher with a blow that would have knocked an elephant off it's feet. The bulldozer was only dazed however, and with a roar, he pounced back towards the Wrecker, spinning up his drill.

Mixmaster, in an attempt to help his fellow Constructicons, left Bumblebee alone and ran forward, changing his servo into an unusually shaped blaster, shaped like the faucet of a firehose. The tank on his back began to spin, and from the blaster, a stream of grey cement-like substance began to spew forth. Arcee barely had time to avoid it as it splattered onto the ground, hardening almost instantly.

Scavenger, his optics shooting around at all of the commotion, quickly set Jack down, to the human's extreme surprise.

"Please don't go anywhere." He asked, before transforming back into the excavator, and joining the fight.

Jack, without hesitation, began to run far away from the battle, taking cover behind a large, fallen stone from one of the nearby pyramids. Carefully peeking out, he watched as Autobot and Constructicon battled it out savagely.

Eventually, though Bumblebee was still stuck and the Constructicons outnumbered the Autobots two to one, it looked as though Team Prime was succeeding. Seeing this, Scrapper stepped back, calling out to Optimus defiantly.

"You can't beat us, Prime! Prepare to meet your end!"

He spun around. "Constructicons! Combine!"

"No!" Optimus yelled, trying to stop them.

But it was too late. Before any of the Autobots could move, the six Constructicons began to transform, but not into their usual vehicle modes. Rather, Scrapper and Mixmaster transformed into what looked like two, tall towers, of which Long Haul jumped on top, transforming as he lept. With a hiss and a clunk, the dump truck connected with his fellow Constructicons, allowing Hook to leap up, and transform into another section, attaching himself to the top. Scavenger and Bonecrusher were the last, leaping up, transforming and attaching themselves to the sides of Hook. Two huge servos appeared, joints and moving parts took shape, and last of all, a head popped up from very top of the massive structure.

Jack watched all of this in silent horror, scarcely believing his eyes. The six Constructicons had merged together into one, colossal behemoth.

As this new foe bashed its fists together and let out a booming roar that swept across the barren desert, Jack saw Optimus do something he hadn't seen before: The courageous Autobot commander, took a step backwards, with deep fear shining in his optics, a fear that was shared equally among his fellow Autobots.

"Devastator…"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _You may be wondering where in the world this story came from. Honestly, I don't know either. See, let me explain: I love Transformers Prime. It's a fantastic show, and I personally think it's the defining Transformers show, besides Generation 1. I love Transformers Devastation, an absolute gem of a game made by Platinum Studios. I hate the Micheal Bay movies. That doesn't really have anything to do with this, I just wanted to say that._

 _So anyway, I was playing Transformers Devastation, fighting Devastator for the third time, when I had a thought: "You know, the one thing that could have made Prime a better show, is if it had this guy in it."_

 _And, yeah. I came up with a story, got carried away as usual, and here it is, Chapter 1 of a little thing I'm going to be doing. I don't think it's going to be a ridiculously long story, maybe six or seven chapters at the most since I kind of wanted it to feel like it was an actual episode of Prime. (Though, I'm not sure exactly where it is in the show's timeline. The problem with linear storytelling is that it doesn't give a lot of wiggle room for content-creators. All I can say it's somewhere in Season 2.)_

 _Anyway, I guess that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this little thing, and I think you can expect the next chapter soon._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, not too far away from the intense battle, another Ground Bridge was opening. From out of its green, swirling depths came Starscream, walking with an almost leisurely stride. As his pedes touched the soft sand of the Egyptian desert and the bridge closed behind him, his blood-red optics shot about, searching for the new arrivals that the Harbinger had detected.

"Now then," He purred, putting his clawed servos behind his back. "Where are you, my dear Constructicons?"

Starscream had never personally met the Constructicons before, but he had heard stories about their exploits during the War for Cybertron. They were evidently one of Megatron's most trusted teams, earning his favor through dozens of victories against Autobot forces. And of course, Starscream had heard rumors of their "special ability."

"Meeting them would be _such_ an honor." He said to himself with a sly grin. "And more than that, it could be quite… profitable."

He chuckled to himself darkly as he held up a small, servo-held device in his claws. His plans were made. If all went well, than Megatron wouldn't know what had hit him.

* * *

"Take this!" Devastator bellowed in his deep, booming voice and smashed the ground where Optimus had been mere seconds ago.

If there was one thing that could be said about Devastator, it would be that his name was quite fitting. Everywhere the combined behemoth went, every step he took, and every earthshaking attack he threw, he left total destruction in his wake. He didn't pull any punches, and he wasn't concerned about collateral damage. Optimus was just grateful that no one else was around, since even though Devastator wouldn't pay heed to them, they would still be in danger from the rampaging giant.

Of course, as Optimus battled, keeping a wary optic on his fellow Autobots, he realized that the Autobots were in great danger as well. Not that they weren't always, but he had always seen them pull through challenges and difficult fights, even despite seemingly impossible odds. But as he dodged a blow that would have flattened him into the dust, he became deeply concerned that this was a battle his team wouldn't win.

Despite these fears, Optimus and comrades continued to fight the combiner with all their might. The Prime leapt backwards, dodging another ground shaking blow from Devastator's fists, only to jump forward again, unsheathing his sword and stabbing it into the giant's arm. Devastator let out a pained cry, but simply swatted Optimus away with a sweep of his arm. With a grunt of pain and the sound of crunching metal, the Prime flew away into the air from the blow, bouncing as he hit the sandy ground.

Arcee jumped forward and with a fearsome battle cry, kicked the giant in the back of his towering leg. Devastator barely felt the blow, but did hear her yell. With long, stomping steps, he turned around and, with a fearsome roar of his own, clenched his fist and tried to smash the tiny two-wheeler.

This is what Arcee wanted however, and as Devastator's fist buried itself where she had been moments ago, she leapt forward and grabbed onto the titan's arm. Climbing and leaping up the side of his arm, the femme managed to reach the combiner's shoulder before he could swat her off. With a cry, she pounced forward and attacked Devastator's massive head with a flurry of kicks and punches.

Devastator did feel this, and stumbled backward under the ferocity of the tiny femme's attacks. However, when he managed to regain his balance, he let out a roar and, much faster than seemed possible for his size, reached up and snatched Arcee from his shoulder. Bringing her to his faceplate with a grim look in his optics, the behemoth began to clench his fist slowly, earning a long, pained cry from Arcee as he began to crush her chassis.

Luckily, she was freed as a series of energon blasts suddenly pinged off of Devastator's faceplate. The combiner dropped the femme harshly and held up his massive servos to protect himself as Optimus and Bulkhead, standing side by side, fired mercilessly at his head.

"Rah!" He bellowed, before leaping forward and trying to smash the Autobots with both fists.

"Scatter!" Optimus yelled, and he and the Wrecker transformed, driving off in opposite directions just in time to avoid Devastator's crushing fists.

Bulkhead almost immediately transformed again to resume firing at the behemoth. Optimus however was driving away from the battle towards Arcee's fallen body, who hadn't moved since she had been dropped.

"Arcee." He said compassionately yet urgently, transforming and kneeling at her side. "Are you okay?"

The two-wheeler groaned in pain as she tried to climb back to her pedes. "F… fine."

As Optimus looked down at her body, he saw that Devastator's crushing fist had left deep dents in her chassis, and streams of energon leaked from cracks in her armor. "Arcee, you are injured. We must get you back to the base."

"N… no! No, I can't leave you with…"

"We will be returning as well." He said, gently picking her up with both arms. "This is a fight that we cannot win now; we must retreat."

Arcee closed her optics and nodded.

"Hey! Guys! I could use some help here!"

Optimus spun around to see Bulkhead frantically running away as Devastator unleashed a sweeping kick that would have toppled a skyscraper. Due to the Wrecker's bulkier size, he was having a much more difficult time avoiding the combiner's attacks.

"Bulkhead!" Optimus yelled. "Transform and fall back!"

Bulkhead nodded, jumped forward, and transformed, driving away as fast as he could. Devastator let out a roar and began to chase after, his long, stomping strides easily keeping pace with the Wrecker's vehicle mode.

 _Scrap, scrap, scrap, scrap,_ he thought frantically as he watched the giant just behind him in his rear-view mirror.

"Ratchet." Optimus called into his COMM. "Arcee is injured, and she needs extraction. Send a Ground Bridge."

"Right away." The medic answered.

Within moments, the swirling, green gateway appeared, and the old, red and white bot ran out of it.

"Where's the patient?" He asked, running up to Optimus. The Prime gently placed the two-wheeler into Ratchet's arms, and the medic made a quick inspection. "What did this…"

As if in answer, a resounding boom echoed throughout the desert. Their optics shot up to see the yellow titan crawling back to its massive pedes, a torrent of dust and sand thrown up around the spot he had fallen. It seemed as though Bulkhead had managed to trip him up, turning Devastator's size against him.

As the dust settled and Ratchet got a full view of the yellow and purple combiner, he felt as though his Spark had dimmed out.

"By the AllSpark… Devastator…"

"Not now, Ratchet." Optimus said urgently. "Get Arcee back to base, and leave the Bridge open. I will retrieve Jack."

Ratchet nodded, and watched as the Prime transformed and sped off. "May Primus protect us." He murmured.

* * *

"Incredible." Starscream murmured, a wide grin spread across his faceplate. "Devastator truly is as powerful as they say."

The seeker had been watching the combined Constructicons and the comparatively tiny Autobots duke it out from a position just out of their sight atop one of the nearby pyramids.

He could see every earthshaking attack that Devastator threw, and every attempt from the Autobots to dodge them. Two were out of the fight already: the yellow one, whatever his name was, hadn't moved from where he lay; and the blue one, Arcee, had been crushed inside Devastator's massive fist. There was no way she was still online.

 _That just leaves the large one, and Prime himself,_ he thought joyfully. _Years of fighting those insufferable bots, but at last, they are finally vanquished._

He laughed as he watched Prime and his ally separate to dodge another of Devastator's blows, transforming and speeding away. Devastator turned to follow the large one, Bulkhead, while the Prime stopped at Arcee's fallen body. A fruitless endeavor. She was far too fragile a bot to have survived.

 _Oh, Prime. Your compassion will be your downfall._

Of course, with all that the seeker had seen Optimus accomplish, there was a part of him that wondered if the Prime would actually find a way to victory.

 _No matter. Even if that oversized rust stain survives, his entire team has been…_ he chuckled _. Devastated. Look! Even now, that imbecile, Bulkhead, is driving himself into a corner!_

Sure enough, the Wrecker was speeding towards the very pyramid that Starscream was hidden on, with the yellow titan hot on his heels. Very soon, he would run out of space, and the poor Wrecker would be crushed between a rock and a hard place.

"Farewell, you dimwitted glitch."

However, with a spark of cleverness and much to Starscream's surprise, just before he crashed into the yellow pyramid, Bulkhead made a sharp, sudden left-hand turn, veering away from the stone structure, and driving right underneath Devastator's stomping legs. Devastator unfortunately, couldn't turn so nimbly, and instead stumbled right into the ancient stone structure.

The last thing that went through Starscream's processor before Devastator crashed headfirst into him was: _Oh scrap…_

The pyramid crumbled, and the seeker fell with it.

* * *

Jack let out an involuntary whoop when he saw the metal giant get buried underneath the wreckage of the pyramid, pumping both fists into the air. With as badly as the battle between Team Prime and the combined Constructicons had been going so far, it was nice to see the Autobots finally get a solid punch in, with the titan being outsmarted by Bulkhead of all people.

Unfortunately, his heart fell when he saw its massive, purple servo reaching up out of the rubble, pushing aside the crushing stones like they were made of paper-mâché. Within moments, the combiner had unearthed himself from the rubble, looking even angrier than before.

"Scrap…" Jack muttered, as the combiner slowly stomped around, looking for his Autobot prey.

The roar of a familiar engine tore the teen's eyes away from the yellow monster, and he looked around to see a familiar, red and blue semi-truck come speeding towards him, dust and sand being thrown up behind its spinning tires. With a squeal of its brakes, the truck spun to a stop right in front of Jack, opening its passenger door.

"Get in." Came the stern voice of Optimus.

Jack nodded and quickly climbed in, buckling his seatbelt and closing the door behind him. Peeling out far faster than any truck should be able to, Optimus and his human passenger were off, speeding towards the still-open Ground Bridge.

"Optimus," Jack asked, looking in the rear-view mirror to see the titan chasing Bulkhead once again. "Who is this… this thing?"

"An old foe." Optimus said. "I will explain when we are back at base."

"What about Arcee?" Jack asked Optimus with concern in his voice. "Is she okay?"

The Prime was silent for a moment, before he spoke. "I am afraid Arcee was injured. She is alright, but Ratchet took her back to base."

Jack closed his eyes and nodded, concern tugging at his heart for his partner. "Okay."

"Bulkhead!" The Prime called into the COMM. "I have Jack. Get to the Ground Bridge now!"

"No complaints here!" He called back, swerving to try to put some more distance between him and the giant.

"And do not forget about Bumblebee!"

"Oh, uh… Scrap…"

The COMM closed, and within moments, Optimus and Jack were upon the Ground Bridge. The two sped through the swirling vortex, until they left the setting suns of the Egyptian desert, and entered the Autobot base, far in the deserts of Jasper, Nevada.

The first thing Jack saw when they got back was Arcee, lying on a medical berth covered in her own energon.

"Arcee!" Jack called out, leaping out of Optimus and letting the Prime transform back to his bipedal mode.

Despite the obvious pain she was in, the blue femme smiled as she saw her human partner come running to her side. "Hey, Jack. This patrol turned out to be a bit more exciting than you thought, huh?"

Jack didn't smile back. "Are you okay?"

"She will be okay," Ratchet said grumpily, walking back up to his patient with an armful of medical tools. "If you stand back, and let me work."

Arcee rolled her optics. "I'm fine. Trust me, I've had worse. And I guess I'm lucky it didn't end up being worse."

"You bet your spark you are!" Ratchet said, shooing Jack away. "Honestly, what were you thinking, Arcee? That you could actually put a dent in Devastator's chassis?"

"Devastator?" Jack asked. "Is that what… that thing is called?"

Ratchet looked down at the human and frowned, before ignoring his question and getting back to work on fixing Arcee, cleaning up her slowly pooling energon.

"Devastator is not just a 'thing,' Jack." Optimus said. "He is a warrior, and a living weapon, one of Megatron's most powerful."

The Prime sighed and looked away. "And now that he is on Earth, I'm afraid that the outcome of the war between Autobot and Decepticon, has become far more difficult."

"But, you guys can beat him, right? You always do."

Optimus looked down at Jack sadly, unsure what to say. Luckily, as he opened his mouth, he was suddenly interrupted by the whooshing of the Ground Bridge.

They turned around to see Bulkhead and Bumblebee finally coming back through, running as though they were being chased by a swarm of scraplets.

"Close the Bridge!" Bulkhead yelled, and Ratchet responded, running over to the controls and pulling the switch that made the Bridge disappear with a flash. Once the portal had closed back into the usual round corridor, Bumblebee turned to Bulkhead with fury in his optics, letting out a series of angry beeps and chirps.

"Hey, hey!" Bulkhead said defensively. "I didn't forget you! I just… uh… forgot."

Bee's optics narrowed, and he let out another angry whirr, holding up his arms to show the room that his servos were still stuck in the cement-like substance that Mixmaster had trapped him in. It seemed as though Bulkhead didn't have time to free Bee's servos, and instead just ripped the scout off of the ground, along with the mound of cement.

"C'mon, Bee. I didn't have time to do anything else."

Bumblebee looked like he was going to say something else, but Optimus stopped him.

"Bumblebee," he said. "I understand you wanted to help us fight, but there was nothing you could have done. None of us have the capacity to fight against Devastator."

Bee's helm and door-wings drooped under Optimus' gaze, and he nodded slowly.

"Once Ratchet has finished tending to Arcee, he can begin work on freeing your arms. Then we can discuss plans on how to handle this recent development."

The scout nodded again, letting out a few submissive chirps, before walking over to the medical area, lugging along the grey block.

"So, Optimus," Bulkhead said, walking up behind the Prime. "You got any ideas?"

"If you are referring to how we may combat Devastator…" He paused and looked over at Arcee, a sad look glossing over his optics. "No, I have none."

"Well then, we're fragged."

* * *

"That's right!" Devastator laughed, watching the last two Autobots flee through the Ground Bridge. "Run away, you bugs! No one can beat Devastator!"

As the Bridge closed in on itself and the Autobots disappeared from sight, the only sound that could be heard throughout all of the Egyptian desert was the booming laugh of the combined giant, reveling in his own victory. He continued to laugh, even as he began to break apart, each separate piece transforming back into their original form. Within moments, the six Constructicons were separated once again, still laughing and cheering at Prime's defeat.

"When will those bucketheads learn?" Bonecrusher yelled. "No bot alive can take us down!"

"We are a raging storm, washing through the lines of the Autobots, snuffing out their sparks as if they were specks of dust." Mixmaster said, raising his servos as if he was reciting an epic poem.

"Shut up." Long Haul growled, even though he too wore a small grin.

"Wrap it up, boys!" Scrapper yelled. "We've done a good job today…"

"Well," Hook interrupted with a sneer. "Except for Scavenger."

"What?" The excavator asked. "What did I do?"

"You let their little organic pet go, you glitch."

"I didn't want him to get hurt in the fight."

He let out a cry of pain as Bonecrusher smacked him across the back of his helm. "Whadda we care if a fleshbag gets stepped on?"

"I… I just thought we could use him as… you know… leverage or something."

"Moron." Hook sneered.

"Cut it out!" Scrapper yelled, breaking it up. "Like I was saying, we did a good job today, chasing Prime off with his tail between his legs, but we've still got work to do. We need to contact the Decepticons on this planet, and hook up with Megatron as soon as possible."

A thin, oily voice suddenly cut through into their audio receptors. "Oh, I believe I can arrange that."

The six Constructicons turned to see Starscream, covered from helm to ped in red grime from the pyramid's collapse, yet boasting a large, mocking smile, with his servos clasped behind his back.

"I am Megatron's second in command; I believe I can get you what you want."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Well, Chapter 2 done. It took a little bit longer than I thought it would, but I guess it turned out okay._

 _First off, I just want to say that I know this story isn't the greatest in the world. I know it's kind of a weak idea, and frankly, I know I'm not the best writer out there, but even still, if you've come this far and you're enjoying it, then thank you._

Anyway, as usual, thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later.

Your's Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you kidding!? Six Cons, mixed together into one awesome giant, and you didn't take me to see it?"

Arcee vented and resisted the urge to turn off her audio receptors. As it was to be expected, after learning about the new enemy that the Bots had fought in Egypt, Miko was making it known to the entire base how displeased she was at having missed the sight. As the young Asian exchange student whined, squealed and complained, Arcee felt a nagging desire to jump off of the medical berth and give the girl a swift punt. Not _too_ hard, of course.

Bulkhead however, patient as he ever was with the young girl, tried to console her. "Listen Miko, you haven't seen Devastator before. You've got no idea just how dangerous he is. Even Optimus can't take him on by himself."

"Really? He can't?" She almost began jumping up and down in excitement. "That's so cool! 'Devastator! The Prime Slaying giant! Coming at you, this Saturday!' That would be amazing!"

Upon hearing her words, Optimus turned away from his quiet discussion with Ratchet, and raised a questioning optic ridge at the young girl. Miko didn't notice, and continued to bombard Bulkhead with questions.

"Does Devastator have any weapons? Any huge guns, or giant missile launchers? How big is he? Is he 200 feet? 300 feet? He's a lot stronger than you, right? Do you think he could just step on Megatron?"

"Miko, please." Bulkhead said, trying to calm the exchange student down. "I don't think you see how big of a problem this is."

"He's right, Miko." Jack said, putting his hands on her shoulders to try and stop her from bouncing out of her shoes. "You didn't see the fight. The Bots couldn't even put a dent in that thing."

She scoffed. "That's just because Bulk didn't get a good shot at 'im." Miko's eyes suddenly lit up as an idea popped into her head. "Oh oh oh! I know! I know! What's the best way to beat a giant robot!?"

Not waiting for someone to answer, she jumped up with an answer. "Another giant robot! All you have to do is get a few upgrades from Ratchet, combine together just like those rusty Constructicons, and go mono-a-mono with Devastator!" She began punching her fists forward into thin air, as if she was imagining taking on the metal giant herself.

Ratchet turned away from Optimus to face the girl. "You can't be serious. You honestly think that turning bots into a combiner is as easy as that?"

"Well why not? You could be the left leg, Doc-bot."

Ratchet rolled his optics. "Puh-lease."

Miko payed no attention. "Bee can be the left arm, or maybe the other leg. Arcee… well, she's too small to be a whole part. I guess she can just be the foot."

"Excuse me?" The femme demanded, sitting up from the berth. Jack just chuckled.

Again, paying no attention, Miko continued. "And of course, Bulk can be the other arm! I'd bet that he could punch Devastator right back to Cybertron!"

She ran up to Optimus' pedes. "And then you could be the head and the body! You'd be making all the decisions, and doing all of that leader stuff! With your skills, Bulk's strength, and everyone else doing the other stuff, you'd be unstoppable!"

Optimus merely shook his helm. "You do not understand, Miko. Converting Cybertronians into components of a combiner is a difficult, dangerous, and time consuming process. Even if we had the means to do such, I doubt that any of us would be willing to, nor would I even ask them to do so."

"Aw, why not?"

Bulkhead carefully picked the young girl up, balancing her in the palm of his servo. "Miko, becoming a combiner is… really hard. You have to go through months of tests and operations, years of training and practice, and that's just the beginning. Once the bots actually manage to combine with each other, it's not as simple as giving control to one of the pieces. When you're combined, you're literally having five or six processors fighting for control of one body. And if you just give up and let the others take control, you can lose yourself in their minds, and come out seriously damaged. It's dangerous."

"Wait a minute?" Miko asked, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know so much about it?"

"Well… I, uh…"

Arcee chuckled. "You never told her, big guy?"

"Told me what?"

Arcee stood up shakily, still recovering from their fight in Egypt, and walked over. "Well, during the war, the Decepticons were experimenting with creating combiners, and a lot of them actually came out working. Devastator was one of the first ones, followed by Abominus and Menasor. The Autobots could barely handle themselves against them, so they decided to make a few combiners of their own."

"Indeed." Optimus said. "It was a difficult decision, and I am afraid the experiments left many brave soldiers damaged, but it was a necessary endeavor."

Arcee nodded. "Superion, Defensor. There were a few notable successes. But probably the most successful one was the combination of a certain group of loose cannons."

Bulkhead's jaw curved upward into a large smile. "You'd better believe it! Old Wreckage was the toughest piece of titanium this side of Kaon! We could scare off the toughest Cons with just a look!"

Miko began visibly bouncing. "You're a combiner, Bulk? That's so fragging cool! What part were you? I bet you were the arm! Did you fight Devastator before? How many Cons did you step on? Was Wheeljack part of Wreckage too?"

Bulkhead shook his helm. "Nah. In case you haven't noticed, Jackie doesn't play too well with other bots. I doubt he would have been too happy having to share a mind with someone else, even if it was other Wreckers. And, uh… Well, as to what part I was... " He paused, and rubbed the back of his helm in embarrassment.

Arcee smiled and chuckled. "You don't need to be embarrassed, big guy. Legs are important." She turned back to Miko. "In fact, that's why him and Breakdown are such bitter rivals: They were competing to see who can be the best leg."

"Hey! That's not the… only reason."

"Breakdown's a combiner too?" Miko asked excitedly. "Why didn't you ever tell me any stories about this stuff?"

"Well, to be honest, I don't remember any stories. Like I said Miko, combining with other bots is dangerous. The only way they could stop our processors from getting fried was by putting some kind of neural dampener in our heads." He tapped the side of his helm with a digit. "I've still got mine."

Ratchet nodded. "In most cases, the only way the separate pieces could avoid cognitive breakdown was by limiting the intelligence of the combiner itself."

"If Devastator's got one weakness." Arcee said. "It's that he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed."

"That's why he ran headfirst into a big, obvious pyramid?" Jack asked.

Bulkhead chuckled, feeling rather proud of himself. "That was pretty good, wasn't it?"

"Even still," Ratchet continued. "Combining can be very taxing for the body as well as the mind. Energon reserves deplete almost four times as fast, just to keep the combiner stable. The Constructicons would literally starve if they remained in a combined state for too long."

"So, sounds like you can just wait it out, then go in for an attack when they go back to 'normal mode'." Jack suggested.

Optimus shook his helm and sighed. "A sound idea, Jack, but I am afraid it would not work. Devastator is far too dangerous to battle head-on, even if we are fighting defensively. Were we to attack with that plan in mind, I fear we would be defeated far before the Constructicons reach that point."

"So then, what can you do?"

"I am discussing possible strategies and plans of attack with Ratchet. Should we think of something viable, we will inform you all."

And with that, the Prime turned around and walked back to the medic, leaving the two humans and two Cybertronians behind. Miko immediately turned to Bulkhead and began asking more questions about his time as a combiner, while Jack just stood and crossed his arms, deep in thought.

"You alright, Jack?" Arcee asked quietly, bending down next to him.

The teen nodded. "I guess. I'm just a little worried about you guys." He smiled sheepishly. "I mean, if you can't beat this thing, who can?"

The blue femme smiled, but in her spark, she was having the same worries. "Hey, how about we go for a drive?"

"Are you feeling up to it?"

"I don't know. Hey Ratchet!" She called to the medic. "Am I good for going on a drive?"

"Yes, yes." He waved his servo dismissively, annoyed at being interrupted. "Just don't strain yourself."

Arcee nodded, then bent down and transformed into her vehicle mode. "Hop on."

Jack smiled and complied, and with a squeal of her tires, the femme and the teen were off, speeding out of the hanger door to the deserts of Nevada.

* * *

"Commander Starscream!" Scrapper stood at attention and gave the seeker a salute. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Starscream chuckled softly. It had been far too long since he had gotten some proper respect. "Indeed, Captain Scrapper. The pleasure is all mine."

Long Haul didn't seem impressed. "You're Starscream?" He inquired, an ominous tone in his gruff voice.

The seeker felt a sudden burst of nervousness at the dump truck's tone. "Ah, well, yes… I-I am. Why?"

"I thought you'd be taller."

The seeker let out a vent of relief.

"Am I to assume you are a liaison for the Decepticon forces stationed on this planet?" Mixmaster asked.

"What? Oh, oh yes! Of course I am." He vented again to clear his neck cables. " _Lord_ Megatron sent me ahead personally to, uh… scout out your arrival and…"

"So, Megatron really is here?" Scavenger asked.

"Yes, yes he is. And he sent me here in order…"

"What about the Autobots? Do they have more forces?" Scrapper asked.

"Well, no. What you fought is all they have on this planet, aside from that one irritating Wrecker. Now then, if you'll let me…"

"So all Prime's got for backup is two stupid mechs and one puny femme?" Bonecrusher laughed. "This'll be easier than I thought!"

"You never think, you daft glitch." Hook sneered.

The bulldozer stomped in front of the crane and spun up his drill menacingly. "What'd you say?"

Hook drew his sword and brandished it. "I said that you've got the shiniest aft in the galaxy!"

Bonecrusher seemed confused for half a second, before shaking it off and baring down on the crane. "You want to fight you weakling!?" He bellowed.

"Calm down, buddy." Long Haul murmured, putting a servo on the bulldozer's shoulder. Bonecrusher growled, but stopped his drill and stepped back.

"Yes." Hook hissed, sheathing his sword. "Let your betters speak."

Bonecrusher looked like he was going to snap back, but Scrapper stopped him. "Cut it out!"

He turned back to the seeker. "What are your orders, sir?"

Starscream's irritation at constantly being interrupted was replaced by a sense of pleasure at being called 'sir.' _This Scrapper is a good mech,_ he thought.

"Well," he continued, clasping his servos behind his back. "As his most trusted lieutenant, Megatron sent me ahead of the Nemesis to scout out your arrival, and offer you welcome you to this dustball. Also…" His smile grew wider, and the poison in his words could have offlined a Predacon. "I was asked to perform a few… medical scans."

Long Haul didn't seem impressed. "Medical scans?" He inquired. "What for?"

"Oh, it's only standard procedure. Knockout has need of all…"

"Knockout?" Hook hissed with a hint of malice. "That glitch is here?"

"Well, yes. Yes he is. He's the Chief Medical Officer aboard our warship, the Nemesis."

The crane growled and crossed his arms, muttering something like; "Scrap-headed quack."

"What about Dr. Shockwave?" Mixmaster asked. "Did he make it off of Cybertron?"

"I am afraid not. I fear that dear Shockwave perished in an Autobot attack on Cybertron some time ago."

Mixmaster laughed softly. "Oh, how tragic. It appears as though you will have need of a skilled scientist then?"

"Well, I suppose so. I don't believe..."

"What about Energon harvesters?" Scavenger questioned. "Because, I'm not too bad at…"

"Will you shut up?" Scrapper yelled, before turning back to the seeker. "Sorry, sir. We'll ask all the questions we have once we're on board the Nemesis."

"Yes, indeed." He vented again. "Well then, now that all of that is out of the way, how about those scans?"

Scrapper nodded. "Yes sir."

Taking out the small, hand-held scanner, the manipulative seeker pointed it towards the Constructicon leader. Sending out a bright, red light, the device began to scan him from helm-to-ped, taking data of his weapons, his systems' functioning and, most importantly to Starscream, information from his modified T-cog. Once the scans of Scrapper were done, the seeker began scanning the rest of the Constructicons, until he had data from all six of them contained within the scanner's databanks.

"Well then," Starscream said with a large smile on his faceplate. "Thank you all _so_ much for your cooperation, and I do look forward to working with you all in the future."

"Indeed." Mixmaster said. "We are eternally proud to be a fist of the Decepticon cause."

"And I can't wait to use my fists bust a few Autobot heads in." Bonecrusher laughed.

"Oh, trust me." Starscream chuckled. "You all will have the chance to destroy the Autobots, _very_ soon."

 _As long as they don't interfere with my plan,_ he thought. _It would be a shame to have to destroy such a potent weapon as them._

"Now then," He said, clasping his servos together. "Once again, it has been a pleasure to meet you all, but I must take my leave. After all, Megatron expects my report soon, and he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"You can say that again." Hook muttered.

Starscream nodded, before turning around and beginning to walk away. "The Decepticons should be here to extract you soon." He said. "Simply wait here, and try to stay away from the native population. They're no threat, but they can be quite an irritant."

"Noted." Scrapper said. "We'll see you on board the Nemesis, sir."

"Oh, I'm sure." Starscream muttered with a grin. "With Megatron's head ground underneath my heel."

He chuckled darkly, before taking out the small remote control, linked to the Harbinger's ground bridge. Sending a signal to the downed warship, he requested a bridge to be opened at his current position, and within seconds, the swirling gateway appeared in front of him, and he sauntered leisurely through.

As the bridge closed, leaving the Constructicons behind in the dark deserts of Egypt, Scavenger tapped on Scrapper's shoulder. "Um, why couldn't we follow him through the bridge?"

The front-end loader just shrugged, turning around and beginning their wait for the arrival of the Decepticon forces.

* * *

As the treacherous seeker stepped into the Harbinger's laboratory, he couldn't help but vent in both relief and a job well done.

"That went better than expected." He muttered. With the poor luck that the seeker had had lately, he couldn't help but feel amazed that something had gone as he had planned. Even the Autobots didn't do anything to interfere, in fact, if anything, they made it easier for him to convince the Constructicons of his 'honest' intentions.

He stepped to the lab's central console, and plugged in the scanner that contained the biological scans of each of the six Constructicons. "Now then." He murmured. "I think that we've learned about the folly of cloning." He shook his head as he thought back to his own armada of clones, that had fared no better than he himself could have done.

"So," he continued, talking to himself as had become habit in his isolation. "Perhaps a better solution could be acquired. Rather than clones of the six Constructicons, perhaps something new. Something that finally could have the power to combat Megatron and his mindless followers."

He smiled evilly as he looked up to the five blank protoforms that he had found lying in the storage area of the ship. "Yes. My loyal armada. My Combaticons."

* * *

 **Author's note:** _Chapter 3 is done. Hurray, I guess. Or something. Hopefully you enjoyed it._

 _If you've all been wondering about where this story is in the Transformers Prime timelen, I fnallay figured out something athat can work, both for this story's general plot, while still fitting into the show's basic canon. This happens almost immediately after the episode with Starscream's clones, but for the purposes of the story, Bulkhead did not ground the Nemesis at the end. Trust me, I've got a plan for how it can all work out._

 _Anyway, thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you all later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._

 _*Edit: I didn't know this before, but apparently a certain number of the Wreckers actually do have a combined form, at least in some of the comics. Huh, who knew? Well, changed the horribly head-cannoned name to his actual name of Wreckage._


	4. Chapter 4

"You allowed him to scan you!?"

The five Constructicons parted in fear as their leader was hurled across the bridge of the Nemesis, sending up sparks as he skidded across the floor. Quickly, Scrapper tried to climb back to his pedes, only for Megatron to grab him by the neck and lift him into the air.

"Wait…" He sputtered, his neck cables being forced closed by Megatron's iron grip. "We didn't…"

"Do you have any idea what he's capable of!? How many times he has tried to usurp me, and terminate me?"

Upon the Nemesis' arrival to the Constructicons' location in Egypt, and the team's extraction to the warship, Megatron had made it a point to greet them personally. At first, the sadistic warlord couldn't have been happier to see the team returned to his side. However, after a passing comment by Scavenger about their meeting with Starscream, Megatron didn't take the news all too well.

"Wait, my lord!" Mixmaster said quickly, trying to save his leader and friend. "There was no harm done! We did not reveal any critical information, nor did we pass on any weapon that could hurt your cause."

"Hurt my cause!?" Megatron repeated. In a burst of anger, he threw Scrapper to the floor, leaving the mech to vent and cough harshly. "Starscream has no desire to hurt my cause; his aim is to destroy _me_! And you imbeciles have given him access to the most powerful weapon currently on this world!"

Under his furious gaze, even the usually stoic Long Haul cringed in fear. However, as Scrapper managed to recover, he climbed back to his pedes and spoke up bravely, a raspy cough still scratching at his voice box. "My lord, we had no idea that Starscream was a traitor. If we had, we would have scrapped him on sight, and delivered his helm to you."

"After pulling off his arms and legs!" Bonecrusher added.

"And maybe giving a few _scratches_ to those lovely wings." Hook finished with a wicked grin.

"I swear to you, Lord Megatron." Scrapper promised. "We didn't mean any harm."

Megatron closed his optics and vented in frustration. "Very well. You will be spared this time. However, you will also be responsible for rectifying your blunder."

He turned around and clasped his servos behind his back. "Starscream has already shown that he somehow has the capacity for cloning himself. Were he to take it a step further, and create clones of you all…"

"My lord." Mixmaster said, stepping in. "I have knowledge of the cloning process. If the traitor were to make clones of us, he would not be able to turn the copies against you. In order for the clones' processors to function, he would have one of two choices. Either he would have to give them our memories, which would only make them turn against him; or he would have to upload a memory from scratch, which would force him to teach them everything they would need to know, including how to combine. At best, he would have nothing but a team of inexperienced footsoldiers."

Megatron vented and nodded. "Very well. Though as I said, it is your responsibility to correct this blunder. Once Starscream makes his move, whatever that may be, you will be the ones to confront him."

"Understood, my lord." Scrapper affirmed.

"We'll crack his aft open before he even knows what hit him!" Bonecrusher said, bashing his fist into his open servo.

Megatron turned and raised an optic ridge at the bulldozer, who chuckled timidly under his gaze. "Sorry, my lord."

"Scrap brain." Hook muttered.

"Shut it, femme." The bulldozer muttered back.

"Now," Megatron said. "Until then, I believe it would be best if you were better acquainted with your new accommodations. Dreadwing!"

The warlord's new second-in-command, who had been observing silently at his side, sprang to attention. "Yes my lord?"

"Give our new recruits a tour of the ship, and assign them their own berths. Relocate some drones if need be."

"Yes, my lord." The bulky seeker said, bowing respectfully. He motioned to the six Constructicons, who followed him out of the Nemesis' bridge and out into the sprawling maze of hallways.

Megatron vented as he watched them depart, deep in thought. There was no doubt that he was glad, overjoyed in fact to have the Constructicons back at his side. Not only did each of them possess skills that would be invaluable to his dwindling command base on Earth, but having the option to turn a weapon as powerful as Devastator against Optimus and his team excited him to no end. However, the fact that Starscream now possessed information on that very weapon did cause him some worry.

He vented again and shook his helm. Clasping his servos behind his back, he turned around and walked over to where Soundwave was working, continuing to monitor every possible signal that passed through the Nemesis.

"Soundwave," He said, a tiny hint of respect in his voice that was exclusively given to the thin, silent mech. "Have you found any sign of Starscream's life signal?"

The Communications Officer shook his head, not turning away from the screen.

"Very well." Megatron sighed. "Double your efforts. I want to know where that traitor is as soon as possible."

Soundwave gave a single nod, and Megatron turned away from him, allowing him to continue his work.

Perhaps he was overreacting. Though the seeker was treacherous, and could be dangerously unpredictable, there was no denying that he was a fool. Starscream was often so blinded by his own ego, that he failed to see the most obvious of flaws in his schemes and strategies. It left him at a severe disadvantage in almost every conflict he engaged in, Autobot or Decepticon.

However, Megatron hadn't survived the Pits of Kaon by underestimating his enemies. He was going to be on high alert at all times, watching warily for whenever the traitor made his move. Megatron could deal with him then, once and for all.

* * *

"You useless piles of scrap! Why won't you work?"

In a brief burst of anger, Starscream pounded the control console with a clenched servo. He had been working on the five protoforms for what had seemed like an eternity, and despite his best efforts, they had remained as lifeless as clumps of steel. He had done everything he thought to be necessary: Uploading the data he had received from the Constructicons, supplying a steady stream of energon (not from his own veins, he didn't want another batch of clones on his servos) and surging the Harbinger's power through their chassis that should have, in theory, given them the same artificial spark that gives life to other clones.

Granted, he was attempting to make adjustments to an already established formula, and had expected the process to be slow and painful. However, his apparent lack of progress was frustrating him to no end.

"Alright." He muttered, pushing his anger down. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

He once again checked each and every level, making sure that the energon he was supplying to them was adequate for the protoforms to become self-sufficient once they were finally brought online, and started up the test once again. Electricity surged along the walls of the Harbinger laboratory as he directed power from the ship into the faceless, simple, white bodies. Their limbs and heads bounced and flailed as they had done each time before, and the simple visors on their faces lit up with a purple glow.

However, as Starscream began to steadily ease the power down, and the flashes of electricity slowly died down from the protoforms' bodies, each one of them slumped back down to their lifeless positions, completely unchanged.

"Grr…" Starscream growled, clenching his denta together. "You useless… Bah!" He cursed, throwing his arms up in the air and turning away.

"This blasted formula is flawed." He murmured. "I always knew Shockwave was a pathetic quack. He couldn't even create an army of competent drones, why should I have expected he could have discovered the secret to life itself?"

He growled to himself, tapping his digits in exasperation. He was so close to calling it a fool's errand and giving up, that he began to wonder why he was wasting his meager supply of energon on the blank bodies.

However, he hadn't come this far and taken this many risks to simply give up when he was so close to his goal.

"One more attempt." He muttered. "Then I shall have to think of something else to further my plans."

With a harsh vent and a raspy grumble, he bent over the monitor once again and began his work.

* * *

"Alright, I can forget about all of the conspiracy nut sightings, I can forgive a bit of collateral damage every now and then, and I can even shrug off the paperwork that comes with hauling off a bunch of 'Con corpses. But turning one of the ancient Egyptian _pyramids_ into a glorified pile of rubble!? Do you have _any_ idea of the balls I'm going to have to balance to cover this up, Prime!? That was a global landmark you destroyed, something that's been around for thousands of years, and in less than a minute, you bots turned it into a-a…"

To say Agent Fowler was angry was an understatement. Everyone at the base had expected him to call and chew Optimus out about the incident in Egypt, but there had apparently been so much backlash at HQ that it had caused him to visit the Autobot base personally, much to everyone's chagrin.

Optimus however, patient as ever with the ill-tempered human, was not fazed by the man's words, and continued to listen with the same calm, respectful demeanour he always kept.

Arcee was a different story. Though Bulkhead and Bumblebee were away, keeping themselves busy by talking among themselves and their human charges, the blue femme was slowly becoming more and more agitated by Fowler's grippings. She could usually tolerate him on most days, and some days she could almost respect him, but when he was chewing out Optimus Prime like he was some unruly subordinate; well, that was a little bit too much in her optics.

"Agent Fowler," Optimus said once the man's rantings had begun to die down. "I am deeply grieved over the loss of one of your cultural landmarks. Had there been a way to avoid its destruction, we surely would have taken it."

He let out a thoughtful vent before continuing. "However, you must understand the situation before…"

"Oh, I understand the situation alright!" Fowler interrupted. "Megatron's got himself a new weapon; some kind of big ol' giant robot, and you bots can't do a cotton pickin thing about it, can you?"

He threw his hands up into the air in exasperation. "The only reason we gave you buckets of bolts so much freedom to do what you want, is because you were the best option we had to track down and fight back against the 'Cons. But if the 'Cons have got themselves a new toy that you can't do anything about-"

"We are currently discussing ways to combat Devastator. Should we settle upon any viable option-"

"That's just it, Prime! 'Discussing' isn't enough! We trusted you to handle all Decepticon activity you could, but now that the 'Cons have got this Devastator thing, you aren't enough anymore!"

Arcee couldn't take it any more. "'Not enough'?" She repeated with anger in her voice. "Even if we're not enough, we're still the best option you've got, fleshbag!"

"Arcee…" Optimus said, but Fowler interrupted him.

"Oh, 'fleshbag' am I? Well, let me tell you something, tiny."

"Tiny?" Arcee demanded.

Fowler ignored her. "You're not our best option; you're our most covert option. And from this moment on, covert ain't an option anymore. If this Devastator is as dangerous as you say, the next time it, or any Decepticon gets within a metric mile of any American city, the military's going to blow it back to Cybertron."

He jabbed a finger towards Optimus. "It's up to you whether you're going to be there or not."

"Are you brain dead?" Arcee practically yelled. "Your men wouldn't last a second against the Decepticons. You need us!"

"Agent Fowler, please." Optimus said quietly. "You know that I will not tolerate any human casualties."

"I know that, Prime. But you don't have any more of a choice than I do."

Arcee's scowl softened a tad. "You mean…"

Fowler just nodded. "I'm not any happier with this idea than you are. But frankly, I don't have a say in the matter. The higher-ups have been hounding me for weeks about you bots, even though I've been trying to tell them you're all still on the top of your game. This Egypt incident is just the straw that broke the camel's back for them."

Arcee vented and closed her optics. "Great. So there's nothing we can do?"

"No. From this point on, if the government so much as gets a whiff of any Decepticon activity, you can bet your buckets they'll be responding with force."

Optimus let out a deep sigh, closing his optics and bowing his helm. Arcee could tell what he was thinking. She knew how much he cared about the human population living across the planet, and she knew how much it would pain him to have any of them killed at the hands of the Decepticons, especially after he had vowed to protect humanity from Megatron's conquest.

The three organisms were quiet for a moment, each one thinking about the dire situation, until Agent Fowler suddenly spoke up.

"You know, even though the government has threatened to respond to Decepticon activity, they still don't have a reliable way of tracking it down and pinpointing it."

Optimus opened his optics and looked at the U.S. agent as understanding dawned on him.

"So, in that case." Fowler continued, a grin growing on his face. "It's going be _your_ responsibility to inform us whenever you detect the 'Cons moving anywhere. After all, even though you represent your own faction, you've still got ties to humanity, and ought to do what's _best_ for us. Capiche?"

Optimus smiled, and nodded. "Thank you, Agent Fowler."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." The U.S. agent suddenly let out a great yawn and rubbed his eyes. "I've got to get out of here. I think being around you bots is giving me some kind of disease."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Arcee said with a smile. "You humans could keel over from a strong breeze."

"Very funny, two-wheeler." With that, he turned around and began walking to the service elevator that would take him back to his chopper.

"Hey, Prime!" He called out, just before closing the doors. "Show those suits that you can handle anything the 'Cons throw at ya, even if they raise Unicron himself!"

Optimus smiled. "You have my word, Agent Fowler. Farewell."

As the doors closed and blocked their sight of the agent, the two Cybertronians sighed in unison, and turned away from the service elevator doors.

"Is something bothering you, Arcee?" Optimus asked quietly. "You seemed angry when Agent Fowler was talking."

"Yeah. Just, sometimes I get kind of sick of how stupid the humans seem to be sometimes."

"They are concerned for their safety, and trusting an outside element that most them have never even seen, must be difficult for them."

"Optimus!"

Both the Prime, and the two-wheeler looked up as Ratchet's voice echoed across the base to see the old med-bot walking towards the duo.

"Can I talk to you Optimus? I think I've come up with an idea for this Devastator problem."

Optimus nodded, and as Ratchet began walking away, he quickly turned to Arcee.

"Don't lose faith in humanity, Arcee." He said quietly. "They will learn how to do the right thing."

With that, he turned around and began to follow Ratchet, leaving Arcee to contemplate his words.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _First off, I'm extremely sorry for how long it's been since I've uploaded anything on the site. To be honest, I just haven't been writing at all lately, since I've kind of been in a slump. But I'm back now, and hopefully I'll be able to work up the conviction to start working on all of my stuff now._

 _About this chapter, I had a bit of fun writing it, since I finally had the chance to write some dialogue both for Megatron (Which is more difficult than you would think.) and Agent Fowler (Which is about as easy as you would think.) Also, am I the only one who simultaneously loves and hates writing dialogue for Optimus? I love it because, well, he's Optimus Prime, and I hate it because I'm not Optimus Prime. Yeah, that makes sense right?_

 _Anyway, that's all I have for now, so thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	5. Chapter 5

"No, no, no! What in the Pit do you think you're doing!?"

Hook simply rolled his optics at the furious accusation. "What does it look like?" He asked nonchalantly, gesturing to the unconscious Vehicon on the table before him. "I'm performing an operation."

Knockout, the head Decepticon medic, scowled and folded his arms. "High-grade antiseptic? Energon cleansers? A full-body polish for Primus' sake? You realize that this is a common drone who had an ache in his leg piston, right?"

Hook scoffed. "Oh, pardon me for being thorough."

"There's a difference between being thorough, and wasting resources. Besides…" Like a snake, the red Aston Marlin suddenly shot forward and swiped the tool out of Hook's servos. "This is _my_ buffer."

"Oh it is?" Hook sneered. "I thought it had a rusty stench to it."

"Why you insufferable…"

"Don't call _me_ insufferable, or this ship is going to have one less medic on standby."

"Oh, I'm so frightened." Knockout drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "The big, bad construction worker is gonna attack me."

"You should be frightened, scrap heap; you wouldn't stand half a second against me. I've offlined more bots than you could even imagine."

"Let me take a wild guess and say most of those were lying on an operating table at the time."

"How dare…"

"Will you two sparklings kindly stop squabbling?" Mixmaster suddenly cut in from his workstation a short ways away. "I'm working with a sensitive formula at the moment, and I'm sure we would all love it if this ship wasn't blown back to Cybertron because I was distracted."

"W-what? 'Sensitive formula?'" Knockout repeated, spinning around to face the mixer. "Are you telling me you've brought dangerous chemicals into my med-bay?"

"Of course. Where else would I bring them?"

"The laboratory, you moron!"

Mixmaster just shrugged. "I've already examined the laboratory, and it's simply not equipped to suit my needs. From the amount of disrepair it's fallen into, it's very obviously been a while since this ship has possessed any notable scientific minds."

"Oh, pardon me. I didn't realize I was in the presence of a _great_ scientist."

"I prefer to think of myself as a chemist." He said with a smile. "For example, would you like a demonstration of my latest project?"

"'Demonstration?'What are you…"

"Go ahead, Mixmaster." Hook said suddenly with a wicked grin. "I'm sure no one will miss him; he's all yours."

"My thanks, Hook." And before Knockout could even flinch, Mixmaster had spun around holding a vial of a sickly green, viscous fluid, and sporting a crazed look in his crimson optics.

With a cry, Knockout's 'Megatron reflexes' kicked in and he stumbled backwards, trying to protect his faceplate with his arms. However, after a moment of standing there stupidly, he heard the mad chemist walking past him, followed by a gruesome sizzling and popping.

"What are…" He uncovered his face and turned around to see Mixmaster pouring the green fluid through a chink in the vehicon's upper armor. Despite still being unconscious, the vehicon's body was jerking and sputtering, and a static was sounding up from his voice box as though it was trying to scream. A putrid green smoke was drifting up through cracks and joints in its armor, accompanied with a scent that made even Knockout, a seasoned medic, visibly flinch.

Eventually, Knockout found his voice. "What are… what do you think you are doing?"

Mixmaster didn't seem to hear. "Hook, could you pass me that dish?" He said with a polite tone that didn't quite seem to fit his actions.

"Of course." Hook replied with an equally polite, if not more sickly sweet, response. As he picked up a small medical tray and handed it to the mixer, he flashed an amused look at Knockout, who was growing visibly sick at the sight.

"Now then," Mixmaster said as he placed the dish on the ground, allowing it to catch drips of a greyish liquid that was dripping down the vehicon's leg from its ankle joint. "As you can see, this particular solution, despite having used such a meager amount, is systematically eating away at this subject's internal structures and systems, while leaving the external armor completely unscathed. I accomplished this marvelous feat by mixing the digestive juices found in a scraplet's gullet with a touch of Hm230; a wonderful chemical manufactured…"

"You may leave now." Hook said to Knockout quietly with an amused grin. "You've already seen the best part, and though he's admittedly a genius, Mixmaster can drone on about his work for an eternity. Besides, I doubt you take too kindly to the sight of a _successful_ procedure."

Knockout, feeling a bit too sick for a sarcastic comeback, decided to comply, turning around and leaving the med-bay with a feeling like he was going to purge.

 _These mechs are insane!_ He thought. _Megatron must be losing his mind; first the Insecticons, now this nonsense. What's next?_

* * *

"So, Breakdown really got snuffed out?"

Elsewhere in the empty corridors of the Nemesis, Dreadwing and Long Haul were walking side-by-side. Even though Megatron's new SIC was quite physically intimidating, especially for a seeker, he was still dwarfed in height and sheer size by the bulky dump truck.

"Indeed." Dreadwing responded. "He was killed by the traitor Arachnid just a short while ago."

Long Haul let out a long rumbling sigh. "I never did like that little witch. Only met her once, and that was 'nuff for me. Hope she gets what's comin to her."

He grumbled again and crossed his arms. "Funny; I remember lobbing with Breakdown occasionally back on Cybertron. He was the only Stunticon I could stand to be around. Real shame he's gone."

"I'm inclined to agree." Dreadwing said. "The raw strength he brought to the battlefield was often invaluable, though admittedly he was a poor soldier in some aspects."

Long Haul just chuckled. "None of us Gestalts are good soldiers. We're too busy fighting each other to ever follow orders."

"Gestalts?"

"That's what they call… you know, bots like us."

"Ah yes, Breakdown did share your team's… special ability, did he not?"

The dump truck nodded. "Yeah. It's a real shame too: Now that he and the rest of his team are gone… well, I'm pretty sure that we Constructicons are the last Gestalt team in the galaxy."

Dreadwing smiled. "And now that you are here under Megatron's command, we now possess a great advantage that the Autobots cannot counter."

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, unless…"

"Unless what, Long Haul?"

The dump truck seemed to think for a moment, before shaking his helm. "Ah, never mind."

And with that, the two continued walking the halls, unaware that they were passing another Constructicon who was having a conversation of his own.

* * *

"...so then, after the explosion had knocked Scrapper over, the rusty Autobot had him totally pinned down, blaster aimed right for his spark, ready to send him to the Pit."

Sitting in one of the drones' berthrooms on the lower levels, Scavenger had a squad of vehicons completely engrossed in his story. Though the Decepticon drones usually avoided higher ranking officers, or risk falling victim to one of their bad moods, Scavenger had quickly shown that he wasn't as temperamental as some of the other Decepticons, which naturally attracted the more subservient drones.

"How'd you guys save him?" One of the vehicons asked.

Scavenger shifted, crossing one leg over the other. He loved it when he could find someone to listen to him "Well, it definitely didn't look good for him, but luckily, Mixmaster and I had snuck up behind him. Just before he was going to fire, Mixmaster sprayed him with some kind of burning acid. You should have heard the little scrap heap scream; I almost felt sorry for him. So anyway, as he was dancing around like an overcharged Praxian, I ran up behind him and…"

"And tripped over your own feet, landing straight on your face."

Everyone in the room, Scavenger included, jumped up in surprise as their optics shot to the berthroom doorway. Standing with his arms crossed and an ugly look on his faceplate was Bonecrusher, staring down the bots inside the room as though he would like nothing more than to snap each and every one of them in half with his bare servos. (Which, he very likely did.)

"Oh, hi, Bonecrusher." Scavenger stammered, standing up quickly. "I was… uh, just… I was-"

"Playing with the brainless drones again?" The bulldozer growled, his naturally loud voice causing the vehicons to flinch slightly. "Primus, you really are such a sparkling."

"N-no! No, I wasn't! I was just… you know, showing them who's the boss! Cause, after all, now that we're… here, we really need to-"

"Shut up, Scavenger. Scrapper was wondering why you haven't turned in your report yet."

"Oh, the medical thing? It's done, I just need to give it to him."

"Well you'd better hurry up, or you'll be adding 'missing limbs' to it after I'm done tearing you apart."

Taking pleasure in the way Scavenger shuddered, the ill-tempered bulldozer gave the vehicons one last nasty look before turning around and leaving, shutting the berthroom door behind him.

Once he was out of sight, Scavenger vented deeply and sat back down. "You guys are going to want to watch out for him." He advised the quiet vehicons. "He really likes to fight things, and sometimes he'll settle for attacking the lower ranked soldiers. Try to avoid him if you see him."

As each of them nodded in affirment, one of the younger vehicons spoke up. "What about the rest of you?"

"Oh. Well, you're probably going to want to avoid Mixmaster too, since he's usually looking for test subjects in his experiments. And trust me, you really don't want to be a test subject."

Scavenger sighed and leaned back. "Other than that, Scrapper doesn't really care what you do as long as you all do your job; Hook is kind of unpleasant to be around, but he's probably the best medic in the galaxy. Trust me, go in to see him, and you'll come out feeling like you've just been sparked. Well, as long as he's not in a bad mood. And, Long Haul is actually pretty friendly most of the time, since he's been working with guys like you since before the war."

"What did he do before the war?" Another younger vehicon asked, this one being sparked just a few years earlier.

"He was just a laborer." Scavenger responded. "Worked in construction, building skyscrapers back on Cybertron. Same with Bonecrusher, though I think he worked in demolition instead, surprise, surprise."

Smiling at the vehicons' laughter, the excavator leaned back and continued. "Mixmaster pretty much did the same thing he does now; mixing chemicals together and making new formulas and stuff, only he did it to help build new buildings instead of, you know, melting Autobots into scrap!"

Waiting a moment for laughter that didn't come, Scavenger chuckled sheepishly. "Well, uh, Hook actually wasn't a medic back then. Instead, he was actually responsible for maintaining Crystal City's guardian robot, these giant mechs that were supposed to defend parts of Cybertron from threats."

Letting the vehicons murmur to themselves for a moment, Scavenger then continued. "And Scrapper, well, Scrapper was probably the best engineer that Cybertron's ever seen. Are any of you old enough to remember Crystal City?"

All of them shook their helms, and Scavenger shrugged. "Okay, well, Crystal City was probably the most beautiful place in the galaxy. It literally glistened brighter than the stars on a clear sky, and only the richest and most important mechs could even afford to look at it. Well, Scrapper designed every last building in that city, along with some other mech that ended up becoming an Autobot; Hoist, or something."

"What about you?" A vehicon asked.

"Oh, I was a miner. I traveled around looking for deposits of raw energon and I dug it up once I found it. Let me tell you; me and my team were probably the best energon harvesters in the galaxy. We could dig up enough energon to fill a cargo cruiser from the most barren scrap heap on the Sea of Rust. There wasn't anyone better."

"So why are you still called Constructicons?"

"Cause that's what we did, at first at least. Megatron brought us all together because we were the best of the best. He had us build all sorts of things; fortresses, secret bases, big energy towers and even super weapons sometimes. Pit, the only reason they turned us into Devastator at first was just so we could lift heavy parts by ourselves. It wasn't until we destroyed Crystal City that we started going on more special-ops."

"Wait, but I thought Scrapper designed Crystal City." The youngest vehicon asked. "Why'd you destroy it?"

"Haven't you read any of the archives?" The oldest vehicon, and the lieutenant of this particular group asked. "Crystal City was a symbol of the nobility and the corrupt government. They destroyed it to show everyone that the Decepticons were serious about creating a new order."

"Yeah." Scavenger affirmed. "Pretty much. Although, it definitely wasn't easy. Scrapper may have designed it, but we were the ones who built it and maintained it. Even though we never really got any recognition for creating it, I still never felt too good about bringing it down. It really was a beautiful place."

"You know," The lieutenant said. "I heard that right after Crystal City was leveled, you guys got attacked by its guardian robot, and Devastator had to pound it into scrap metal."

Scavenger shrugged. "Not exactly. You see…"

His words were interrupted as a booming series of pounds suddenly reverberated from the berthroom door.

"Scavenger!" The deafening and furious voice of Bonecrusher bellowed. "Get out here right now, or I'll crush your head into a cube!"

Scavenger balked and almost fell out of his seat in surprise. He looked as though responding to the bulldozer was the last thing in the universe he wanted to do. Luckily for him, one of the vehicons rescued him.

"He's not in here!" He called through the door. "He left a little while ago!"

They all heard Bonecrusher grumbling to himself for a moment, before turning away and promptly leaving, his heavy footfalls being heard as he stomped down the corridor.

Scavenger wasted no time: Leaping up from his seat, he quickly but silently dashed and threw open the door. After listening for Bonecrusher's pounding footsteps, as well as quietly peeking up and down the corridor, the excavator quietly slipped outside, but not without mouthing a silent "thanks" and giving a quick thumbs up to the vehicons inside the berthroom. They all responded with a gesture and a nod, and watched as the excavator began to make his journey through the halls of the Nemesis, hoping to avoid any and all signs of the ill-tempered bulldozer.

* * *

"Let's see, by first energizing the base molecular components of the CNA, it should be triggering the ionization process, thereby acting as a catalyst for the accelerated maturation of the protoforms. And yet, the energon doesn't seem to be responding to the surges that are being forced through…"

At this point, even Starscream didn't know what he was talking about. After pouring over the blasted formula for hours and hours, the seeker had crammed his helm with all of the knowledge that was available to him about the complicated process, and he still was no closer to accomplishing his goal than he was with his first attempt. So much energon had been wasted, both on his experiments, and from the energy he had exerted on his own stores, that he was beginning to believe he would starve if he continued any further.

"Grrr…" He growled as he rubbed his tired optics with his claws. "Even though he's dead, Shockwave is still taxing my patience. Scrap him…"

With a deep vent, the seeker managed to tear himself away from the monitor, and he slowly walked towards his five hanging protoforms with his servos clasped behind his back.

"What is the matter with you?" He asked the blank form in the middle. "Why will you not do as I say?"

Clenching a servo, he rested it on the protoform's chest. Feeling the heat emanating from the body from all of his previous tests, he closed his optics and vented again, longer and deeper than before.

"What will it take?" He asked quietly.

It hit him. Like a flash of lighting, an idea suddenly blossomed into the forefront of his processor.

"Wait…" He whispered, a smile slowly but surely curling onto his face. "That's it… yes. Yes! That's it!"

He took his servo off of the protoform and spun around. "Oh, you genius! Oh, you marvelous, one-eyed mastermind!"

He dashed to the monitor and began pouring over Shockwave's research once again, looking for a specific entry that the doctor had entered at one point in time.

He soon found what he was looking for, and read it over once again, this time grasping and examining every word.

 _The Spark is undoubtedly the foundation of Cybertronian life. When the Spark is extinguished, so too is the Cybertronian bearer. However, if the Spark were the only necessary component of our being, it is logical to conclude that our race's intelligence would have stagnated with that of the common cyber-slug. My research of the extracted Sparks has shown that this theory of a greater consciousness separate of the Spark is a logical and as of now, probable component of our being. It is through this integrated and yet separate component that has allowed our race to continue and thrive as we have. Further research into this, I believe, could bring light to my theory of creating a specialized prison that could hold the consciousness of the enemies of the Decepticons in the form of data, without the unnecessary hassle of maintaining their physical bodies. Further research is required before a conclusion is reached._

"This is it!" Starscream whispered. "The key to my problem! I'm focusing on the Spark and the body, without even giving a thought to the soul!"

He knew that Shockwave had indeed succeeded in his venture of creating this data prison. Though it was kept secret to most, Megatron often sent prisoners there that had betrayed the Decepticon cause, but were too valuable to terminate entirely.

"This is all I need!" The seeker whispered. "To create a set of artificial personality… no. No, such an idea is ridiculous! I'd never be able to manufacture them by myself. I need…"

A cold smile and a dark chuckle escaped from his lips. "I will need to borrow someone else's."

He turned his gaze to the protoforms, hanging lifeless on the laboratory wall. "Soon, my Combaticons, soon you will live, I will have my revenge on the accursed Megatron and I will finally claim my rightful place as leader of all Decepticons!"

The seeker's mad laugh echoed throughout the halls of the Harbinger as he went forth to fulfill his plan.

* * *

 **Author's note:** _Writer's Block sucks._

 _So, yeah. I know what you're saying. "Three months later, and you're just now updating this? And it's not even a very good chapter? Shame on you!"_

 _Well, I can explain... no, not really. I've just been really lazy, and I haven't had any idea what to write. I guess I could say I've been busy, but when it comes down to it, I just haven't been working on anything lately._

 _Well, anyway, I know that this chapter is mostly filler, (heck, I was thinking about labeling it as Chapter 4.5) but I really wanted to explore the personalities of the Constructicons, and how they would integrate to life in the season 2 Nemesis. All in all, I know it didn't go anywhere really, but I still think it came out decently, right?_

 _Anyway, that's all for now. Thank you all so much for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	6. Chapter 6

Quite sometime after Starscream's revelation he was sound in recharge, having fallen offline while sitting in front of a monitor on the bridge of the Harbinger. However, as he was having a rather pleasant memory-replay of a time back on Cybertron, the seeker found himself suddenly jolted into consciousness by an alerting beep from the computer.

"Wha.." He murmured as his processer began to slowly reboot. Shaking his helm to clear his mind, he slowly leaned up until his optics caught sight of the monitor.

 **Download Complete.**

 **File prisonerData_3409**

Instantly, his dull optics lit up bright, and a smile graced his faceplate. "Oh, sweet Primus yes! At last!"

Hours. He had been slaving away for hours to complete his plan. After he had realized what he had been doing wrong with his protoforms, he instantly set out for the Harbinger's bridge to setup a connection directly to Cybertron, or more specifically, the Darkmount data prison that Shockwave had developed some centuries ago: A massive server that housed personality components of hundreds of valuable Decepticon prisoners. Though their bodies had likely all been broken down for parts, this prison held all those that Megatron had deemed too dangerous or too traitorous to roam free.

And Starscream had access to them all. With his (formerly) high position among the ranks of the Decepticons, it was easy for him to access the now abandoned server in order to download what he needed. Though it took a considerable amount of time sorting through the virtual halls and downloading the massive files all the way from Cybertron, he soon had the complete personalities of not one but five prisoners that he deemed possessed the prime qualities to be his new footsoldiers. Now all that had to be done was upload each of them to the blank protoforms in the laboratory.

"Ah," he sighed as he finished transferring the data to a small data drive at the base of the monitor. "So close. I'm so close. If this doesn't work…"

He shook his helm, not even willing to consider what he would do next. Unplugging the data drive, he stood up and began his long walk back down to the laboratory, where the lifeless protoforms waited.

Despite his constant self-assurances that his plan would succeed, Starscream couldn't help but worry that something would go wrong, or that he had missed something vital to its success. After so many wasted resources on failed tests, he was running dangerously low on his already scarce energon reserve. He didn't think he could afford even one more failure.

Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't try.

* * *

Not long after, the seeker was back in the laboratory preparing the protoforms for the final test. After double and triple checking each and every connection and running down the checklist that he had practically memorized at that point, he was finally ready to test his hypothesis. Plugging in the small data drive into the laboratory console, he transferred all five of the personality files into each of the blank protoforms' processors, and after checking the energon connections one last time, he began the procedure.

"Now," he purred, pushing all doubts and worries to the back of his processor. "Let's give this one final whirl, shall we?"

Crossing his digits, he clutched the lever on the side of the wall and gave it a heave. Just like each time before, the energon began flowing down the connections into each of the five protoforms, and flashes of energy began to arc along the walls, directed along into the blank bodies.

The bodies jolted the moment the powerful energy touched their circuits, and each of their visors lit up bright with a purple glow, just like before. However, as Starscream watched them with an expectant optic, his spark suddenly pulsed with joy as he caught sight of something that had not manifested before.

The protoforms were changing. Warping. As their limbs jolted to and fro from the surges of electricity, Starscream could see that their bodies were each slowly being formatted into a different form. Very soon a visible, ethereal glow appeared, and slowly began to creep across the surface of the protoforms, expanding from the chest and bright enough to force the seeker to shield his optics partially.

Within moments, the shimmering glow had enveloped the five blank bodies, and it was at this moment that Starscream began to slowly ease down the power. As the electricity began to die down, so too did the ethereal glow, and once it disappeared completely, Starscream's spark leapt out of its chamber.

In place of the five blank protoforms, five fully armored mechs were hanging on the wall suspended by the same connections that had held their formerly blank selfs. Slowly, one by one, each of their optics began to online dimly.

"Yes! Yes!" Starscream laughed. "At last!"

Starscream had done it. He had formatted blank pieces of nothingness into five, venting, living Cybertronians, each with a pulsing spark of their own. Had he been more scientifically minded, he likely would have thought this to be the most important achievement of his life.

"Greetings, my loyal Combaticons!" He said grandly. "Welcome back to the land of the living!"

With a flamboyant flick of a switch, he released the five of them from their restraints. In response, all five of them slowly tottered for a moment before falling dazedly onto their faceplates with a hard clunk.

"Oh, uh…" The seeker mumbled. "Perhaps I'm being a bit too hasty."

Clearing his neck cables, he stepped away from the laboratory monitor and walked slowly to his new soldiers as they lay on their faces. Carefully, he bent down to the one in the middle, a heavy built mech with dark green armor, and prodded him with a digit. In response, the mech shifted and groaned, almost like a child who doesn't want to get out of bed.

"Ah, good." Starscream said. "You're alive."

Unsteadily, the mech leaned up and tried to support himself with his servos. With static sounding in his voice box, he finally spoke. "Wha… What…"

"Easy there." Starscream said as gently as his oily voice would allow. "You've just been through a very intensive procedure. I'm sure you're very disoriented."

In response, the mech suddenly lurched forward and purged violently, spewing half-processed energon all over the floor. Starscream immediately jerked backwards to avoid being covered in the vile substance.

"Oh, disgusting! Could you please do that somewhere else!?"

"Starscream?"

The seeker took his optics off of the mess in front of him to see that the other four mechs were slowly coming into their senses as well. Dazed and confused, each of them slowly pulled themselves off of the floor as they each tried to grasp their current whereabouts.

"Starscream." One of them repeated, a taller and burly bot with pale grey armor, purple highlights and dark red optics. "Where… where am I?"

Another, a shorter and stockier mech with a dull orange armor and piercing purple optics, managed to get to his pedes. "What did you do to me?" He asked as he looked at his servo. "This isn't my body!"

"What is going on?" Asked a dark brown mech and a seeker as well, as evidenced by the simple wings on his back. "Sweet Primus! I'm hideous!" He exclaimed looking down at himself.

"That's fragging it!" The dark green mech who had purged suddenly lunged towards Starscream. As he was grabbed by the neck cables with both servos, the seeker realized with a squeak of terror that the bot in front of him was incredibly large and incredibly wide; perhaps as large as Breakdown or Bulkhead.

"I'm gonna pound your head into the floor!" The huge, green mech bellowed into the seeker's face, tightening his hold on his neck cables.

"Wait…" He tried to sputter. "I… not..."

"Put him down!"

All five pairs of optics turned to see the final bot climb to his pedes. This one was different from the rest, not just because of his massive size and stature, (which was comparable to Optimus Prime himself) or because of his dark blue and orange armor, and cold yellow optics.

No, this one was different because of the air of authority that he carried about him. As he towered above the five other mechs in the room, they all saw that his very presence was one that demanded respect.

"I said let him go." He ordered.

The green mech growled, giving Starscream a nasty look, before dropping him roughly to the floor.

Coughing and venting, the seeker climbed back to his pedes while rubbing his neck cables. "Ah… thank you."

He let out a sudden yelp of terror as the large mech walked up to him with powerful, thudding steps.

"Now then." He said slowly as he towered over the seeker. "Starscream. Tell me what you have done to us."

"I… I, uh…" Starscream stuttered before realizing he needed to regain his composure. After all, one needs to appear powerful for his soldiers.

"What have _I_ done? Why, I have given each of you a new life of course!" He said with a flamboyant flourish. "I rescued the five of you from that pit of a prison as a gesture of goodwill!"

The short, orange mech chuckled. "Please. You can't con _me_ , Starscream. What're you up to?"

The seeker chuckled lightly. "Yes, well… I admit I didn't do it solely out of the goodness of my spark."

He turned away from the five of them, clasping his servos behind his back. "I have a deal for the five of you: A mission if you will. A mission of great importance not only to me, but to that of the entire Decepticon cause!"

He turned around to face them with a wicked grin. "I need you all to terminate the mad despot, Megatron!"

Their reaction wasn't quite what he was expecting. While both the towering bot and the shorter orange bot crossed their arms in silent contemplation, the brown seeker visibly scoffed, the huge green mech guffawed loudly, and the purple mech just rolled his optics.

"Very funny." He said. "Now how about we rip your spark out of your chest and get out of here?"

Starscream's sly smile instantly dropped and he held up his servos defensively. "Now, now. Don't be too hasty…"

"I don't know. That sounds good to me." The brown seeker said with a smirk.

"Gentlemechs, gentlemechs." The orange mech suddenly cut in with a pleasant smile. "No need for all of this violence! Let's not pass up a good offer. See if this deal of his has got any substance before scrapping him."

"I agree." The towering blue and orange bot said. "Don't harm him until we've heard him out."

"You can't be serious!?" The green mech yelled. "Scrapping Megatron!? There's no way we could kill that buckethead! Trust me, I've already fraggin' tried!"

"Yes." The towering bot said, staring down the loud green mech with a cold optic. "Unless I'm mistaking, we all have. Haven't we, Starscream?"

Starscream smiled widely. "Oh, it was no accident that you five were the ones I chose to free from that prison. I analyzed each and every possible candidate, and not only do you five possess very special abilities that make you fearsome combatants, but each of you possess a single, vital trait which I need in my soldiers: You each want to kill Megatron just as much as I do. After all, each of you have known firsthand the tyranny and the egotistical insanity with which Megatron operates, and you have each been victims of his lust for power and total domination.

"Like you, Brawl." He said, gesturing to the huge, green mech. "You were one of the most powerful soldiers in the Decepticon army. You could decimate a legion of Autobots with your bare hands, and your mighty temper was legendary among friend and foe! And how did Megatron repay you for your service? He humiliated you! He beat you down like a common Insecticon, and locked you away!"

Brawl growled, pounding a clenched servo into the other. "Fraggin' pile of scrap!" He yelled. "I'll annihilate him!"

Starscream smirked. "That's the spirit. But you are not the saddest story, oh no. After all, we have all lost much at Megatron's vile hands. Like you, Swindle." He gestured to the short, orange mech with the purple optics. "You controlled a virtual empire of black market goods and sub-legal weaponry. Your brilliant enterprises almost singlehandedly armed the entire Decepticon army, and kept it functioning for eons! And yet, despite your contribution to his war, Megatron cast you aside like nothing, once he found out you were selling a few… minor toys to the Autobots."

Swindle smirked and shrugged. "A bot's got to make a living."

"Yes, of course." Starscream mentally rolled his optics before turning to the brown seeker. "And you, Blast Off. You were one of the best assassins that Megatron had. Your…"

"Bounty hunter." Blast Off interrupted.

"I… I'm sorry?"

"I was a bounty hunter. I was nobodies' 'assassin'."

"Ah, yes. Of course." Starscream coughed lightly. "Well, anyway. You were a remarkable… bounty hunter. You eliminated some of the Autobot's most valuable targets, with skillful aerial assassinations that would make the most skilled of the Decepticon air troopers look like common drones! And yet, what did Megatron do to you, after one mission went ever so slightly awry?"

Blast Off narrowed his optics in silent and invisible rage. "I get your point." He growled.

"Of course you do." Starscream purred. "And that's not even the end of Megatron's crimes! Take yourself as an example, Vortex." He said, gesturing to the burly, grey and purple one. "You were a loyal Decepticon through and through! Despite being… ever so unhinged, your talents in the subtle art of interrogation broke countless bots, both Autobot and Decepticon alike. And despite your loyalty to his cause, what did Megatron do to you after you let one tiny Autobot with some 'vital' information slip through your fingers?"

Swindle let out a quick chuckle. "I heard that he let her go because he fell in love with the glitch!"

Vortex suddenly spun around and bared down on the shorter, orange bot. "Don't talk about her like that, you little scrap heap!"

Swindle held up his servos defensively, without losing his wide smirk. "Now, now. I didn't mean any harm. We're all friends here, aren't we?"

Vortex growled, holding up a clenched servo as though he was going to cave the shorter bot's faceplate in. However, he was stopped as the towering bot shot forward and grabbed his arm.

"Don't touch him, Vortex." He ordered.

"Ah, of course." Starscream chuckled as Vortex wrenched his arm away from the bot's grasp. "How could I ever forget about you? The greatest injustice of us all! Onslaught: The most brilliant tactical mind that Cybertron has ever seen! Your strategies reaped countless victories against the Autobots, even when faced with impossible odds! Your genius was second to none! Even the great Optimus Prime couldn't…"

"Stop patronizing me, Starscream," Onslaught said with a frown. "and get to the point."

"Uh… yes. O-of course." He cleared his neck cables. "Now, despite your incredible genius and countless contributions to the Decepticon cause, how did Megatron repay you?"

"He locked me up." Onslaught answered with narrowed optics.

"Well, you did kind of try to overthrow him." Brawl said.

"I wasn't trying to overthrow him." The towering bot responded. "It was a militaristic coup. I was simply trying to wrestle him out of control so that a leader more capable than him could take over."

"You mean a capable leader like yourself?" Swindle said with a grin.

Onslaught glared at the short, orange bot. "I don't want to lead. I just want to win the war."

"And will that ever happen if Megatron leads the Decepticons?" Starscream asked with a sly grin.

Onslaught contemplated his words for a moment before responding. "Very well, Starscream. I'm in."

"Wonderful!" The seeker exclaimed. "And what about the rest of you?"

Swindle shrugged. "Revenge is usually bad for business, but having Megatron alive would be worse. I'm in."

Vortex crossed his arms. "I guess I'm in too. As long as you'll give me a few minutes alone with the old buckethead to _play_." He said with a wicked grin.

"Oh, excited are we?" Blast Off scoffed.

"After all he's done to me? I think I deserve a bit more than the satisfaction of just killing him."

Brawl laughed loudly. "I like the way you think! I'm in too."

Blast Off sighed and shook his helm. "I'm still not convinced. Do you even have a plan for how we can get close enough to offline the fragger?"

Starscream grinned widely. "Oh, I haven't even told you all the best part yet. Through some extensive modifications to your new bodies, I have given you each a very _special_ ability. Just trust me, and you will have a chance to not only beat Megatron, but humiliate him as well."

The brown seeker sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I'll stay for now. But as soon as things start looking bad, I'm out."

"Trust me." Starscream purred. "The plan I have in mind is foolproof."

"Alright." Onslaught said. "Give us a briefing."

"Oh, in all good time, my dear Onslaught." The seeker turned away and began walking towards the nearby ground bridge controls. "For now, I believe we should first focus on acquiring you all suitable vehicle modes, as well as weaponry which will assist with our assault on the Nemesis. I suggest we raid one of the human's military bases, and take what we need before the Autobots can stop us."

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on." Vortex interrupted. "'Nemesis? Autobots?' What are you talking about? And what the frag are 'humans'?"

"Oh, uh... perhaps I still have a bit to explain…"

And with that, the seeker began a quick recount all that had transpired following the five's imprisonment, as well as explaining their current whereabouts.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yes! New chapter in record time! For me at least. Hope you all enjoyed it._

 _I definitely had a lot of fun writing this one. The Combaticons have always been my favorite team in the Transformers series, so it was a lot of fun to start fleshing out what I imagine their personalities would look like in Prime. I've got a feeling I'm going to be having a lot of fun continuing this trend, especially when they meet the Autobots and the other Decepticons._

 _Also, is it just me, or is Swindle one of the most fun characters to write dialogue for? I mean, he's not even my favorite Combaticon (that honor goes to Onslaught, in case you couldn't tell) and yet I got absolutely giddy whenever I had to come up with something he would say. I dunno, he's just got such a fun personality to write._

 _Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	7. Chapter 7

Soon after, the five Combaticons (though none of them had agreed to this name, Starscream had insisted they answer to it. Something about 'a fitting title for such an elite team.') were waiting a short ways away from the seeker as he prepared the ground bridge for their very first mission. They were all very silent, even the usually booming Brawl, as the news of Cybertron's fate had hit them all very hard, and they were still trying to wrap their processors around it.

"I still can't believe it." Vortex murmured. "It's just dead."

"Millennia of history…" Onslaught growled. "Gone. And for what?"

"To beat the Autobots, I guess." Brawl answered with a frown.

"Autobots?" Onslaught let out an angry chuckle. "Autobots? No. That's not the reason we lost our home. We lost our home, our entire fragging planet, because we gave control of our people to a _psychopathic maniac_!" He accented this by suddenly lashing out and punching the wall with a force that left a deep hole in the cold metal.

This sudden burst of temper caused the other four bots to jump in surprise, and as the towering mech pried his fist from the wall and turned back around to face them, they all found themselves involuntarily flinching under his furious gaze.

"Do any of you understand the opportunity we've been given here? We five have the chance to right millions of years of wrongs and pointless war, and take revenge for our people and our planet."

"Oh come on." Blast Off scoffed, leaning back against the wall. "Don't pretend to be so idealistic, Onslaught. You have personal reasons for offing Megatron, just like the rest of us."

Onslaught glared at the brown seeker. "My personal reasons aren't important."

"It's just business, right?" Swindle said with a chuckle.

"No. It's more than that. It's about legacy. The legacy of all Decepticons." Onslaught crossed his arms. "How can you all stand there, knowing that Megatron has destroyed everything we've ever known and fought for, and only care about meaningless grievances long in the past?"

"Meaningless?" Vortex growled suddenly, standing up. "What Megatron did to… to me was not meaningless."

"I know that, Vortex." Onslaught said, covering his optics. "But you still don't understand."

"And I don't think they will."

The five bots looked up to see Starscream standing there with a smirk on his faceplate and his claws clasped behind his back.

"Don't be hard on them, Onslaught." He said, walking up and patting the blue and orange bot on the forearm. (Which was the only part he could reach, given Onslaught's height.) "They don't need to understand why we are doing what we do. Not like you and I know." His smirk grew wider. "You and I; we are of a similar mind. We know that killing Megatron serves purposes far greater than our own, yes? What we do, we do for the whole galaxy!"

"Stop manipulating me, Starscream." Onslaught said bluntly, glowering down at the grey seeker.

"Uh… yes, I… Of course." He coughed lightly, before turning to the other bots. "Now then, my Combaticons…"

"I still hate that stupid name." Blast Off muttered, but he was ignored.

"I have pinpointed a human military base where we should be able to gather resources suitable for my plan. The location is remote in comparison to their settlements, so I believe we should have ample time to gather what we need before the Autobots are able to respond."

"What are we going after?" Onslaught inquired.

"Well, anything that explodes I suppose." Starscream said with a chuckle.

"You can't be serious." Blast Off sneered.

"Of course not. It doesn't matter what kind of weapons we acquire, just so long as they are able to assist us with out assault on the Nemesis."

Swindle sighed. "You don't know the first thing about quality, do you?"

"I… I know…" The grey seeker sighed. "Fine. If you are so knowledgeable, _you_ can be in charge of the acquisition."

"With pleasure." The orange bot said with a fake bow.

"And you are sure these human things will cause no trouble?" Onslaught said.

"Definitely not. The humans are a sad, primitive race who haven't even broken free from their small system yet. They will cause us no problems."

"Uh, question." Brawl said, raising his hand like a child in school. "Then why are we stealing their weapons?"

"Uh… b-because…"

"You haven't thought this through at all, have you?" Blast Off taunted.

"Of course I have!" Starscream said, raising his voice slightly. "You need to trust me, yes? The humans may be weak and primitive by themselves, but some of them have managed to create some… passable weaponry. Besides, I'm sure you've all noticed that I… ahem, _we_ are running short on resources here?"

"He's right." Onslaught agreed. "I don't doubt that we'll need something at least to even stand a chance against Megatron's soldiers. Plundering resources from any available source is and always has been a smart tactical move."

"Besides." Swindle said with a grin. "I'm sure that any junk we scrounge together, I'll be able to upgrade it into something a bit more… dazzling."

"Fine." Blast Off scoffed. "Whatever you say."

"Now then." Starscream said, clasping his servos together. "Are we clear?"

"Not at all." Vortex said, shaking his helm.

"Bu… but…" The grey seeker growled. "Just... follow my lead, okay?"

"By all means." Onslaught said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Carry on."

Starscream smiled. "Ah, it's so good to see that at least one of you have an inkling of respect. Come."

The five of them watched as the seeker sauntered off back towards the ground bridge controls. As soon as he was out of receptor-shot, Vortex said quietly. "We're not actually going to be letting that egomaniac tell us what to do, are we?"

"Yes, we will be." Onslaught said, electing a groan from both Blast Off and Vortex, before adding. "For now at least."

Swindle chuckled. "Planning something, are we?"

"We need him for intel about Megatron and his troops, as well as information about this planet and its inhabitants. Once he's fulfilled his usefulness…" He paused and shrugged, his face remaining stoic. "We'll see."

Brawl laughed, far too loudly for their liking. "I like the sound of that!"

Starscream's voice suddenly cut through their discussion. "If you all are done chatting, I would certainly love to give you all a briefing _now._ "

"Let's see you give a briefing after I've shoved your voice box up your aft…" Vortex growled quietly.

Even still, the five Combaticons obliged, walking back through the doorway towards the impatient seeker, but not before Blast Off whispered "Idiot…" in Brawl's direction.

"What?" The green mech asked. "What did I do?"

The brown seeker just rolled his optics and ignored him, before slowly sauntering to a stop next to the other four bots.

"Now then." Starscream said, turning to the five bots. "I'm sure most of us understand our objective, but to put it simply for the rest…" Vortex noticed that the seeker cast a glance over to him, and he growled silently before Starscream continued. "All we need is to gather as many weapons and materials as we are able, as well as finding suitable vehicle modes for each of you. Though they are primitive, humans do have a reputation for producing somewhat impressive vehicles so…" He grinned. "Choose whatever suits your fancy."

Brawl laughed. "I'm gonna scan the most bad-aft tank these things have got." His smile dropped a bit. "Do they have tanks?"

"I'm sure they do." Starscream assured. "Now then, any questions?"

"Negative." Onslaught said plainly.

"Excellent." The seeker turned and, with a flick of a switch on the ground bridge console, opened the swirling vortex in front of them. "Remember, in and out before the Autobots are able to respond. Simple."

* * *

"Prime! Prime! Get your big, red butt over here now!"

Back at the Autobot base, the five Cybertronians and their human friends were called to attention by Agent Fowler's voice sounding from the console in the middle of the hanger. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Jack and Miko each looked up from the video game they were playing; Raf glanced away from his computer screen, and Ratchet, Arcee and Optimus turned from the quiet conversation they were having.

"Yes?" Optimus' calm and steady voice responded as he walked to the console with powerful, booming steps. "What is it, Agent Fowler?"

"What else?" Fowler responded with urgency in his voice. "Decepticons, doing what they do. Except now, they're targeting us!"

"What?" Ratchet exclaimed. "You don't mean they're attacking civilians?"

The U.S. agent shook his head. "They're not, thank the stars and stripes. They are, however, attacking a military base in New Mexico, and those boys are going to need your support as soon as you can haul your metal butts over there!"

"Hold on." Arcee said, crossing her arms. "Why are Decepticons going after a military base?"

"Maybe there's some kind of weapon they're interested in?" Raf suggested, standing up from where his laptop lay.

"Yeah!" Miko agreed. "Some kind of awesome laser cannon or something!"

"Have you identified the attackers?" Optimus asked, his optics narrowing slightly in thought.

"Yeah. As far as I can tell, it's that guy with the wings and the high heels; Starscream."

Both Jack and Miko snickered among themselves quietly.

"Starscream?" Arcee repeated. "What is _he_ doing attacking a military base?"

"It does seem strange that he would be drawing attention to himself in this manner." Optimus said.

"Well he's not alone." Fowler said suddenly. "Apparently, he's leading an unknown number of unknown players, and they're really tearing the place up. They seem to be gathering weapons and other military hardware from across the whole base."

"But, I thought Screamer was on the outs with the other Decepticons." Bulkhead said, a confused look crossing over his faceplate. "Who would he be…?"

Fowler interrupted. "Listen, I don't care what his motivations are or who he's working with, all I know is that you buckets need get over there ASAP and blow him and his friends back to whatever hole they crawled out of. Got it?"

"I understand, Agent Fowler." Optimus responded with a nod. "We will depart immediately."

"Good. I don't think I need to remind you all that you're less than popular with my higher-ups right now, so try to put up a real show, got it?"

"Of course." And with that, the agent cut the transmission.

"Autobots!" Optimus ordered, turning to his team. "Prepare yourselves! Human lives are at risk, and we need to roll out as soon as possible!"

"You got it, boss." Bulkhead responded, followed by an affirming beep from Bumblebee. Arcee simply gave a smile and a nod. They all turned and walked briskly away, preparing for the coming battle.

"Optimus," Ratchet said quietly, pulling the Prime aside. "Do you think there could be a danger of you… facing Devastator?"

Optimus frowned in thought for a moment, before saying. "I do not think so, Ratchet. As Bulkhead said, Starscream has apparently severed ties with Megatron and his Decepticons, and that hopefully includes the Constructicons. However," He paused. "I still believe we should be on guard. Something very unusual is happening, and we should be ready for anything."

Ratchet nodded in silent agreement, before turning and readying the ground bridge for their departure, inputting the coordinates for New Mexico, U.S.A.

* * *

Moments later, the team of Autobots were stepping out of the swirling ground bridge into the cool, dry air of nighttime New Mexico. As they each readied their weapons while the green vortex closed behind them, all four pairs of blue optics scanned the surrounding area. The base seemed completely deserted, as all soldiers stationed there had received Agent Fowler's evacuation orders not long earlier. In fact, the last few helicopters carrying the stragglers could be seen hovering away off into the distance, leaving the base behind in complete and utter silence.

"I don't like this." Arcee muttered, optics shooting back and forth for signs of movement.

"The aggressors must be aware of our presence and are as such likely hiding." Optimus advised the team. "Keep an eye on the vehicles; it is very likely they are more than they appear."

"I'm just glad I'm not seeing any construction vehicles." Bulkhead muttered.

Even still, the team kept a wary watch on everything with wheels or wings. The base was still filled with all sorts of machines of war, ranging from jeeps to jets to tanks, and even a few bigger and more advanced pieces of equipment. It was clear that this particular base was a storage site for some of the military's more heavy duty weaponry. Optimus could only begin to imagine what was hidden in the nearby warehouses.

"Autobots?" He said. "I believe it would be prudent to split off into pairs to better scout the area. Bumblebee, you go with Bulkhead. I will accompany Arcee."

Bumblebee chirped in agreement, and he and the former Wrecker set off.

"Are you sure splitting up is a good idea Optimus?" Arcee questioned as she and the Prime began slowly walking in the opposite direction.

"It is a risk." He admitted confidently. "But I believe we need to find Starscream and his mysterious followers as soon as possible, so that we may have a chance to discover what he is planning and stop it."

"Alright. Whatever you say, Optimus."

The two began walking away, energon weapons still deployed and both pairs of optics carefully scanning their surrounding area. However, neither of them caught sight of the brown seeker who was silently and skillfully stalking them from the nearby rooftops.

* * *

"See anything Bee?"

As the scout and the Wrecker walked side-by-side, each were as vigilant as the Prime and the two-wheeler some distance behind them. Bee let out a chirp in the negative, which made Bulk sigh.

"I don't really get what Starscream is doing here." He said.

The scout beeped and whirred in response.

"Well, yeah. I know that. I just don't understand what he needs with human weapons."

Bumblebee chirped, shrugging.

"Even if he's running low on supplies, what he's already got has still got to be better than the humans' stuff. Besides, there's no energon here."

Bee responded with a short beep and a long whirr.

"Yeah, I guess. But I didn't…" Bulkhead's face seemed to drop a bit. "I… I didn't see him carrying any energon away when I was… you know."

Bee's optics widened a bit and he let out a questioning chirp.

"Well… I don't want to talk about it, Bee. I got stuck on the Nemesis and I got out, there's not much else to say."

Bee crossed his arms, holstering his arm blasters, and whirred adamantly.

"Bee, I'm serious. I don't want to…"

They were interrupted when a deafening boom suddenly sounded in the air. Before the scout or the Wrecker could even respond, Bulkhead felt something hit him from behind and detonate, blasting him off his sturdy feet and forward a good few meters. Bee also felt the explosion, being knocked away from the epicenter, but being able to recover faster since he didn't take the full brunt of the blast.

As the scout spun around, activating his blasters as he did, his sharp optics saw as a huge, green tank began rolling towards the duo, rotary cannon aiming in his direction. With another resounding boom, the tank fired a second shell in Bumblebee's direction, but the nimble scout was able to leap and roll out of the way, avoiding the shell and letting it explode as it hit the side of one of the nearby warehouses.

Bumblebee raised both arms, ready to pelt the aggressive tank with a flurry of energon blasts, when he suddenly heard the telltale sound of a transformation behind him. As he spun around, weapons at the ready, he watched a huge assault chopper change shape into a burly, purple Cybertronian.

"Ohh…" This new bot almost purred, taking a battle stance. "You look like you'd be a screamer."

Bee leapt forward, intending to use the purple bot as a shield from the approaching tank while simultaneously fighting with him. However, as he threw a forceful punch, he was surprised as the purple bot deftly sidestepped his attack and grabbed his outstretched arm. With barely even a grunt of effort, the purple bot twisted around, swinging the surprised scout with him, before releasing his grasp and hurling Bee to the ground. Before the yellow scout could regain his balance, he caught a glimpse of a shorter, orange bot who was standing where a combat jeep had been parked a moment ago. The orange bot smirked and raised a fist, and everything went black for the scout.

Bulkhead meanwhile, still trying to get back to his feet, heard the sound of a transformation from where the green tank had been.

"Get up, you scrap-sucking Autobot!" A loud, booming voice sounded.

The green Wrecker growled, ignoring the pain that was spreading from where the explosive had hit, and crawled to his feet. However, as he raised his optics, he suddenly realized that, standing just a few feet in front of him, a dark blue and orange bot with cold yellow optics, almost as tall as Optimus, was staring down at him.

"Oh…" Was all he had time to say, before he felt a quick burst of pain and all went black.

* * *

"Aw, come on!" Brawl yelled, watching as the green Autobot fell underneath Onslaught's blow. "I wanted to fight that one!"

Onslaught rolled his optics quickly, before turning to the three other Combaticons. "Well done, gentlemechs. That was quick and efficient, just as it needed to be."

"I live for quality." Swindle said with a grin, brushing his fist across his chest as though he were wiping dust from an expensive suit.

"Indeed!" Starscream's voice cut across each of their audials, and they turned to see him step out from behind the crates he was observing the fight from behind.

"That was quite an impressive display." He said, his voice silky. "I knew I made the right choice giving each of you new life. Why, with all of us working together, I know that…"

"Starscream." Onslaught growled. "You said we would be gone before the Autobots were able to respond."

The seeker's sly grin dropped. "W-well… I suppose I underestimated…"

"Of course you did." The tall bot turned away. "Blast Off." He said into his COMM. "What's the Prime's position?"

"He and the little femme are still searching for us." Came the quiet reply. "I don't think they're any the wiser."

"Excellent. Keep out of sight. Vortex and I will meet at your position and we will engage to distract while Brawl and Swindle carry the last of the supplies to the Harbinger."

"Don't keep me waiting."

As Onslaught cut the link and turned to Starscream and the other three Combaticons, he saw as Vortex bent down and tapped twice on Bumblebee's unconscious helm. "What do we do with these two?" He asked.

"Leave them." Onslaught ordered. "There's no reason to offline them yet."

"W-what?" Starscream stuttered. "What do you mean? We have two of Prime's team in our grasp! We should take this opportunity…"

"What is our goal?"

"W-what?" The seeker stuttered.

"What is our goal?" Onslaught demanded.

"Well, Megatron. But…"

"Killing the Autobots now will not further that goal, so we leave them. They may yet be of use."

"B-but…" Starscream tried to say, but Onslaught ignored him, instead turning to the other three.

"You have your orders." He said bluntly. "Vortex, with me."

And with that, he transformed into his new vehicle mode: A long weapons platform, complete with two, huge, double-barreled turrets towards the rear, and drove off. He was immediately followed as Vortex transformed into his new chopper mode and, rotors spinning up, lifted up into the air.

"Hmph." Starscream huffed, watching as the two of them slowly shrunk into the distance. "Onslaught needs to learn his place. Giving me orders…"

"Hey." Swindle said with a shrug. "He predicted that Prime would split up his team to look for us. I think he knows what he's doing."

"I know that. It's why I freed him in the first place! But he still needs to understand…"

"Hey!" Brawl suddenly called, and both the seeker and the orange bot turned to see the huge, green bot carrying a large, wooden crate in his arms.

"I need a bridge here. And are you two gonna help, or what?" He demanded, his helm flicking towards a pile of large crates, each containing weapons that the six bots had pilfered from all over the base.

"What are you talking about, my friend?" Swindle said, taking on his dealer persona. "I am helping! I'm supervising you and wings over here. It's why Onslaught left me behind."

"You could still carry something…" Brawl grumbled.

Swindle's grin grew wider. "Tell you what. You carry the rest of those crates back for us, and you'll be the first one I hook up with some new gear. Once I've crafted it, of course."

Brawl's face suddenly lit up. "Really? You know I like explosives, right?"

"Oh, of course. I'll give you the best I can come up with. Something that would punch a hole in a star cruiser."

The change in Brawl's demeanor stunned Starscream. He had almost been worried he would have had to help carry some of the crates back, but now it appeared as though Brawl was suddenly willing to do it all himself. As the seeker pulled out the ground bridge remote and opened a path back to the Harbinger, he couldn't help but glance down at the short, orange bot.

"How did you do that?" He asked, watching as the green muscle stepped into the swirling bridge and disappeared from sight.

Swindle simply grinned; an almost goofy half-smirk. "Trade secret." He said simply, his purple optics flashing with amusement.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Chapter 7 ready and done. I wanted to give a very grateful thanks to Sith Lord Kisara, who gave me a kick in the butt enough for me to actually start working on this again. Without her, I dunno if it would have gotten back to this for... I don't even know how long it would have taken._

 _So yep, Chapter 7 done and dusted. I had fun writing it, and hopefully you all had fun reading it. Swindle is still an absolute joy to write._

 _I also wanted to say that I've made a decision. I think one of the major problems I have with my stories on this site is that I switch around writing the next chapters for all of them, trying to get chapters out for all of them on a regular basis. I don't think that's going to work for me anymore, and I've decided to only focus on a single story at a time, and right now, I think that story will be this one. So if any of you are fans of Leaving Avalice or Adventures: Reimagining, I'm sorry but I won't be working on those again until this little Transformers flik is finished. Hopefully that'll be okay for everyone._

 _Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	8. Chapter 8

"Bumblebee? Are you there? Bulkhead, respond. Hello?"

Optimus frowned as he watched Arcee attempt to contact the other Autobots, a deep unease settling down on his spark. Eventually, after a few more futile attempts, Arcee scoffed in frustration.

"They're not answering." She said. "Do you think something happened to them?"

Optimus frowned, his optics narrowing, as he ran over as many possible scenarios in his processor as he could. Eventually, he came to the only plausible conclusion.

"I have made a terrible mistake." He stated firmly. "We must regroup with Bumblebee and Bulkhead immediately."

However, the moment he turned, he saw that it was already too late. Approaching quickly from off in the distance were two vehicles; a hovering helicopter, and a long military weapons platform. Immediately, Optimus activated both energon blasters and closed his battle mask. "Arcee," he warned. "Prepared yourself."

The blue femme spun around as well, activating her own blasters, and stepped to the Prime's side. Both pairs of blue optics were glued to the strange approaching vehicles, and bodies were poised for a coming fight.

The helicopter was first to arrive, transforming in mid-air and landing with a deft flip to reveal a purple bot with dark red optics. The wicked, almost maniacal smirk he gave the pair of Autobots dispelled all notions that he was friendly.

"Optimus Prime." He grinned, standing straight. "It's a real _pleasure._ Who's your girlfriend?"

He looked up and down Arcee as though he were picking her out for a Thanksgiving meal. The glare of his optics made her shudder slightly, and she desperately wanted to shoot that evil grin off of his face. "Frag off, creep." She said instead.

However, before he could respond, the second newcomer arrived. Bit by bit, the already huge transport transformed into one of the largest bots that Arcee had ever seen. She should have been used to bots that towered over her like a skyscraper after working with Optimus for so long, but as she looked up into the cold, yellow optics of this new bot, she felt a new kind of fear tug at her spark. Not the same kind of primal fear she felt when facing Megatron, but rather a deeper sense of stabbing unease. She had no idea who this was, but she knew that he was real bad news.

"Optimus Prime." This new, towering bot said with a harsh tone. "I'm sure it has been quite a long time. For you anyway." He added.

Optimus raised an optic ridge, but kept his blaster trained on the blue and orange bot. "Identify yourselves."

"Yes, I figured you wouldn't recognize me." The tall bot stepped forward, as though he was either unaware of or didn't care about the energon blasters pointed at his spark. "Does the Battle of Tyger Pax jog your memory? Or how about Kalis? Or…" His yellow optics flashed. "Nova Cronum?"

Optimus' body suddenly tensed, and his optics narrowed into a dark scowl. "Onslaught."

Arcee's optics shot over to Optimus in surprise. "What? Onslaught? No way. He's long dead."

"What have you done with my soldiers?" Optimus asked with a serious tone that he very rarely used.

"The yellow one and the big one?" The purple bot chipped in. "Oh, they're unfortunately perfectly healthy. They won't be helping you though." He added with an evil sneer. "Oh, you can call me Vortex by the way. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

"Am I to assume this is Starscream's doing?" Optimus asked, recognizing Vortex as a prominent Decepticon inquisitor that had long ago been reported missing.

"You'd be right, Prime. As usual." Onslaught scoffed. "Hard to believe that cowardly waste of a soldier could accomplish anything, but I suppose everything has it's use."

"So what, he's just raising bots from the dead now? Frankly, I've had way more than enough of zombie bots." Arcee scoffed.

"I have a feeling it is more complicated than that, Arcee." Optimus mused. "But that does not matter now." He turned to Onslaught, energon blaster still primed and ready to fire. "You have committed many crimes against Cybertron, Onslaught. I will not allow you to roam free to commit more crimes against Earth and its human inhabitants. Stand down."

Onslaught smiled a wide, mocking smile. "'Commit crimes against Earth?' Don't humor me, Prime. I think you have a better grasp of my true intentions than you care to let on. Don't you?"

"Your intentions, whatever they are, are not of importance. I am only concerned with the safety of the humans and my Autobots."

"Oh. So these humans things are that important to you? Interesting, but not really surprising. I'll have to make a note of that."

"That's enough, Onslaught."

"My my. Look at you two banter like a bonded couple." Vortex chuckled.

"Can we please just knock these two out already?" Arcee asked. "They're just stalling for time."

"Ah, surrounding yourself with the best and brightest, as always Optimus." Onslaught chuckled. "Vortex, Blast Off. Attack."

Before Optimus or Arcee could process what had happened, they suddenly heard the pitterpat of machine gun fire, followed by a flurry of sharp, stinging pings on the armor in their backs. Both spun around to see, perched high on the roof of one of the nearby warehouses, a brown, winged figure was firing at them with a hail of conventional weaponry.

Arcee immediately raised her weapons to return fire, however, she let out a cry as she felt herself being tackled from behind. Realizing that Vortex had leaped forward and clasped her into a stranglehold, she wiggled and struggled to free herself.

Meanwhile, Optimus had raised his blaster and fired a duo of warning shots towards the perched sniper. Rather than fall back and take cover out of sight however, the assailant leaped out over the edge of the roof and transformed into a large, heavily armed jet fighter. The fighter's engines roared to life, and the resulting shockwave from it blasting off into the air pushed Optimus back ever so slightly. Turning around, the Prime tried to step forward to help free Arcee from Vortex's grasp. However, he was stopped as another volley of stinging bullets pelted him from behind. He turned, arm raised to try to deflect some of the fire, to see that the jet had made a sharp turn and was making an attack run on him.

Conventional bullets were not a threat to Cybertronian armor, at least, not as much as traditional energon weaponry. However, given enough time and focused fire, especially on the weaker sections such as joints, it could still potentially cause moderate to serious damage. And this seeker seemed to know exactly where to shoot to cause the most damage.

Optimus raised one of his blasters and fired a few, scattered shots in the brown seeker's direction. However, the jet swerved and weaved skillfully to dodge every one, continuing its unrelenting barrage of machine gun fire into the Prime's armor.

Arcee meanwhile, had managed to break free from Vortex's grip by thrusting an elbow into his midsection. The blow caused an involuntary vent to escape his body, and he lessened his grip just enough for Arcee to twist around and deliver a strong punch into his faceplate. Vortex stumbled back a few paces, but recovered fast enough to parry a flying kick from the small, blue femme.

Arcee was taken aback at the purple bot's quick reflexes. He seemed to be able to move much faster than his burly frame would suggest. Still, she'd beaten tougher opponents before. Embarrassed would be the better word.

"Ohh…" He chuckled darkly as Arcee landed on her feet, deploying both of her battle blades as she did. "You are a delicious specimen."

"Don't talk to me, freak." She snarled.

"Freak? So harsh." With a wicked smile on his face, he followed her movements as both of them slowly circled each other. "A lot of pain I'm sensing coming from you. Now… I wonder where that could have come from."

His words were so piercingly knowing that Arcee found herself stunned for half a second. That was enough, as Vortex suddenly lashed out with a right hook that she only barely dodged. However, she was unable to counter as his pede came up and connected with her chest. She was knocked backwards off her pedes, but managed to regain her balance as well as gain some distance from her foe by performing a graceful backflip.

"You are tough. But a tiny femme like you? I bet all of that toughness is meant to cover up a poor, broken spark. After the things _you've_ seen, I bet the Pit would be a welcome release."

"What the frag are you talking about?" Arcee yelled, forgoing her blades for her long energon rifles.

"Arcee, was it?" Vortex laughed evilly, a sound that made Arcee's spark shudder. "Oh, I recognize your name. It was all I could ever hear about after you escaped from my _colleague."_

"Colleague?" Arcee repeated quietly, before a harsh, furious look set upon her face. "Arachnid?"

Vortex scoffed smugly, smiling as he did. "That little bug was an ameteur really. I would have snuffed that partner of yours first thing, then the _real_ fun would have begun."

Everything else seemed to go dark for Arcee as her optics focused solely on the purple bot in front of her. Both blasters were forgotten in favor of battle blades, and the blue femme let out a raging roar of fury. She leapt straight towards Vortex like a bloodthirsty panther, ready to tear him apart into scrap.

Meanwhile, Optimus was still struggling with Blast Off in his brand new jet mode. Every shot that the Prime sent his way was deftly dodged with a skill and a swiftness that Optimus had seen only ever seen in a few flyers before. But while Optimus couldn't hit the flying seeker, he could most certainly hit the Prime, and Optimus knew his armor couldn't stand much longer against his continued barrage.

In fact, just as Blast Off was making another pass while pelting the Prime with a flurry of bullets, he suddenly let out a grunt of pain as one stray bullet passed into a chink behind his right knee and hit vital components. He fell to one knee as sparks leapt out from the damaged joint, holstering a blaster as he did.

Vainly, he attempted to hoist himself back to his pedes, but his damaged knee would not allow it. He could do little to nothing as he heard the passing seeker cut his engines and transform in midair. He landed on his feet in front of the kneeling Prime, standing to reveal his tall, powerful frame. With a gleam in his optics, he gave Optimus a small but victorious grin.

"I really did expect a lot more from you, Prime." He said, an almost disappointed hint in his voice.

"The strength of Optimus Prime is far more fiction than fact." Onslaught said, finally stepping forward from where he had been observing the battles. He hadn't participated as he had concluded that neither Blast Off nor Vortex had needed help overcoming their foes, the latter of which had already beaten Arcee down and was currently keeping her down with a heavy pede on her shoulder. After coaxing her into the blind rage he knew she would fall into, it was easy for the master of breaking minds to manipulate the battle into his overwhelming favor.

"Poor little sparkling." He mocked her with a borderline sadistic tone. "I'll make you suffer like that organic wannabe couldn't even dream of."

He began pressing down hard on her shoulder, earning a cry of pain as her armor began to buckle slightly under his pede.

"Enough!" Onslaught ordered. "Do not harm either of them."

"You can't be serious." Blast Off scoffed.

"What is your plan, Onslaught?" Optimus grunted, venting deeply. His leg had stopped sparking, but a thin stream of energon was still leaking out from between the joints, pooling down on the hard concrete below. "What do you want with my team?"

"With your team?" Onslaught laughed. "I don't want anything from your team. I just know you would have interfered if we'd let you."

"Interfered with what?" Optimus demanded. "What are you doing on Earth?"

The tall bot smiled and bent down until he was optic-level with the Prime, a serious look forming on his faceplate. "Listen, Prime. I know we have a rocky history. I've humiliated you in the past, just as you've humiliated me. But I'm sure you know that I am not one to indulge personal grudges. I want to win the war, plain and simple."

Optimus frowned, narrowing his optics as he stared into the yellow optics of the bot in front of him. "There is no war to win. Megatron has all but decimated our home and our people. There is nothing left for the Decepticons to rule."

"You think I don't know that?" Onslaught vented, anger obviously flaring up on his faceplate. "I know what Megatron has done to us. To all of us; both Autobot and Decepticon. And I intend to _make things right._ "

The Prime raised an optic ridge, but before he could ask what Onslaught meant, Vortex spoke up suddenly. "Onslaught. I just got a COMM from Starscream. He wants his _loyal soldiers_ to return to base."

"Very good." Onslaught said, standing back to his full height. "Combaticons! Retreat back to the ground bridge. Make sure no one follows."

Vortex chuckled darkly, looking back at Arcee as she lay under his pede. "See you soon, little kitten." And with that, he let off the pressure on her chest as he leaped up and transformed into his chopper mode. Blast Off followed suit, and soon the two of them were flying away. However, just before Onslaught transformed to follow them, Optimus spoke.

"Onslaught. You know you cannot trust Starscream. He is unpredictable and treacherous, and following him in his quest to usurp Megatron will only lead to your own destruction."

Onslaught only smiled. "Once again, you underestimate me. I don't intend to follow Starscream, Prime. He's an asset. Useful now, but he will soon become redundant, and he'll then be disposed of." He chuckled. "I'm sure you wouldn't approve of that. You're too sentimental for your own good; a weakness that's far too easy to exploit."

"It is not a weakness to value life."

"Of course it isn't. But where you and I disagree is which lives are _more_ valuable than the others. You think all life is equal, no matter what. I know that the value of a life depends on how much that life contributes to a greater good."

"Every sentient being contributes their own part to the universe."

"You don't honestly believe that? What has Starscream contributed? What have you contributed? What has Megatron contributed? Centuries upon centuries of destructive war. What do you think…" He stopped, just as a look of anger was rising up on his faceplate, only for it to fall into a more relaxed state as he let out a chuckle. "Listen to us. Arguing philosophy about life and war and the universe. Just like old times, right?"

He sighed and turned around. "I have no quarrel with you right now Optimus. My quarrel is with Megatron and Megatron alone. His 'contribution' to the galaxy has resulted in far more harm than good. I hope you agree?"

Optimus remained silent.

"I thought so." Onslaught chuckled, before bending down and transforming. "So long for now, Prime."

And with that, he sped off in the direction that Blast Off and Vortex had gone, leaving Optimus and Arcee behind to watch.

"Arcee." Optimus grunted, pivoting his body to face the fallen two-wheeler, while still trying his best to coax his damaged knee to respond. "Are you hurt?"

"Ugh..." She groaned, leaning up and placing a servo on her aching helm. "I'll… tell you in a minute."

The Prime smiled slightly and let out a deep vent of relief, before establishing a connection with Ratchet back at base, requesting a ground bridge and a medical extraction.

* * *

"What took you?" Swindle said with a smile, watching as Onslaught slowly rolled to a stop and transformed in front of him. "Wings and blades are already back at base."

"I was having a conversation with an old acquaintance." The tall bot said plainly. "Have all of the supplies been transferred to the Harbinger?"

"Yep. We loaded them in record time. Give some credit to Brawl; it was almost like that ol' lug hauled the whole stack through!"

"Excellent. And will you be able to use what we salvaged?"

The orange bot held his arms out and smirked. "Hey, look who you're talkin' to! I could make a high-grade explosive out of a broken-down power converter."

"Then let's get back to base. I think it's time Starscream let us in on the next phase of his plan."

"What about the 'Bots?"

"They performed as expected. Whether or not they will be useful to my own plan remains to be seen."

And with that, the two bots walked through the swirling ground bridge, disappearing into its depths and letting it close behind them. And with that, the battle-torn military base was left in the silence of the night, completely devoid of life save for five Autobots; two unconscious, two damaged, and one very grumpy as he began extracting them back to their own base.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yeah! Another one marked, finished, and completed! I think that focusing on one story at a time was a good idea. It let me focus solely on the story, and not have to worry about imaginary deadlines I set for the other two. I think I'm definitely gonna keep doing this, so you should hopefully expect the next chapter within the month._

 _All in all, this chapter was a lot of fun. It was the first real time you got to see the Combaticons in action, and I hope it all turned out all right for you all. It was also a great chance to explore a bit of Onslaught's past some more, as well as give a little more character to Vortex. I've always felt that Vortex, compared to the other four Combaticons, was the blandest character, so I've definitely been trying to make him a bit more interesting in this. Also, if you remember, Swindle mentioned a few chapters ago that Vortex might have had a bit of a relationship with an Autobot femme in the past (Which Vortex didn't refute.) and I was curious if any of you could make a guess as to who that could be? (And no, it's definitely not Arcee.)_

 _Also, I know the Construticons haven't been making a big appearance in the last few chapters (Ironic, considering that I originally intended them to be a main focus on this story.) but don't worry. They're definitely gonna show up next chapter, and I'm gonna try to make them more prominent in the following chapters as well. So, yay._

 _So, yeah, I don't have much else to say. I know this chapter's a bit short, and I'm sorry if this note is a little incoherent (I'm very very tired right now) but hopefully everything was still entertaining for you all. Please, tear me apart if it wasn't. *cough_

 _That's all I've got for now. Thank you all so much for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	9. Chapter 9

"Ah, excellent timing. I trust Prime caused you no trouble?"

Starscream grinned as both Onslaught and Swindle finally walked through the ground bridge into the laboratory of the Harbinger. Swindle only chuckled at the seeker's question, shaking his helm as he did, while Onslaught answered curtly. "Of course not."

"Marvelous! Once again, you prove that my brilliant…"

"Stop right there." Vortex said suddenly, standing up from the wall he had been leaning on. "I'm really not in the mood to listen to one of your egotistical tangents. I already got robbed of snuffing out one spark tonight," he cast a grumpy glance in Onslaught's direction. "So if you're not careful, I may have to settle for yours."

"Ah… no need to be hasty…"

Brawl let out a loud snort. "You got robbed? I didn't get to do a single fragging thing. While you were going head-on with Prime himself, I had to lug boxes around. I didn't even get to see how those human things squish."

"The humans were not the focus of the mission." Onslaught said simply. "Like I said, killing one of them would only have provoked a swifter and more aggressive retaliation."

"As if they could be a threat." Blast Off scoffed.

"I don't know." Swindle said, who had walked over to the stack of crates that contained the pilfered weapons and was currently shufflin through and examining the contents. "Some of this stuff actually looks like it could cause some decent damage. With a few upgrades and some good old engine grease, I think we could actually have quite an arsenal here."

Blast Off only rolled his optics. "You can't be serious. If you really think any of this junk is even going to annoy Megatron, then you're all stupider than I thought. I have no idea what I'm still doing here."

"I hope you're not having second thoughts." Starscream said with a sharp glare in the brown seeker's direction. "I understand if you are… hesitant about engaging Megatron in combat, but I assure you, my plan guarantees his demise."

"If it guarantees his demise," Onslaught growled. "Then why haven't you told us what said plan entails?"

Starscream let out an annoyed huff. "I've already told you, Onslaught; in good time. Just know that it requires all five of you if it is to succeed." He turned away from the gathered Combaticons. "But for now, I think it is time to initiate the next phase. Now that we have a passable arsenal, I think it's time we secured a cache of energon. I'm afraid we will simply not be able to continue with our current reserves so low."

"And how do you propose we do this?" Blast Off asked with a sneer.

"Simple. We steal it from the Decepticons."

"Alright, now I know you're glitched in the processor." The brown seeker threw his servos up into the air. "I've had enough of this scrap; I'm not hanging around you clowns anymore."

He made a motion to walk towards the doorway, but Brawl stepped into his path.

"Where do you think you're going?" The green bruiser growled, clenching his fists. "In case you've forgotten, Screecher said he needed all five of us to axe off Megatron. Which means you're not going anywhere until I've crushed his head into a ball."

"I'm sorry, what did you call me?" Starscream demanded, but he was ignored.

"Oh, feeling tough all of a sudden?" Blast Off scoffed. "As if you could even stop me. I've been offlining stupid lugs like you since before the war started."

"Though, to be fair, most of those were from far away with a null rifle." Swindle said with a grin, before quickly adding. "Not that I mean any disrespect, of course. I'm an avid supporter of your work, rest assured Blast Off."

Vortex rolled his optics as he leaned against the wall. "Why do you always sound like you're trying to sell us something?"

"I'm sorry, have you met him?" Blast Off asked, allowing himself a half-grin in the purple bot's direction, and earning a chuckle in return.

"Aw, come on. That's unfair." Swindle said, his dealer's smile only growing wider. "I'm not trying to sell you anything. I'm only trying to introduce you all to a bigger wo..." He stopped suddenly, before letting out a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry, force of habit."

"That's enough!" Onslaught said at last, glaring at the four Combaticons. As each of them fell silent, the massive blue and orange bot directed his gaze towards the brown seeker. "Blast Off, if you want out, we need to know now. I can't have you deserting us in the middle of a mission. So, either you stay and help us fight, or you leave, and any chance of killing Megatron disappears. What will it be?"

The two bots stared at each other for a moment, Onslaught's yellow optics boring right into Blast Off's red, before the brown seeker finally sighed and shook his helm. "I'm staying. I'll take any chance I'm given to get rid of the buckethead, even if I've got to risk my own plating with you idiots."

"Good." Onslaught turned away to face Starscream, who was watching all this with a surly look on his faceplate. "Alright, let's not waste anymore time. What's our next move?"

Starscream huffed and crossed his arms. "Oh? You don't want to waste anymore time, do you? Are you sure we can't fit in a little more unnecessary drama?"

"Sarcasm? That's a new one." Vortex said.

"It just means he's getting tired of all of your iron-headed scrap." Brawl growled. "And so am I."

"Nobody cares what you think." Blast Off sneered.

"I said enough!" Onslaught yelled, optics narrowing. "Starscream, continue."

"Thank you, Onslaught. It's good to see at least one of you cretins can give me some proper respect."

"Don't push me, Starscream."

"Who's pushing who?" He asked, a venomous undertone in his voice. "Now, if we are quite done, may I give you all a proper briefing?"

"Go ahead." Swindle said with a smile. "I for one am excited to get some proper energon. That stuff you've got in the cargo bay has gone stale."

"Energon doesn't go stale." Blast Off grumbled, but no one acknowledged him.

"Yes, well, as you all should know, Megatron's Decepticons already have control of the vast majority of energon mines. Most are cleverly hidden from the prying eyes of humans and Autobots. But luckily, I, as the former second-in-command of the Decepticons, already know most, if not all of their locations."

He paused, as though he were expecting praise and acknowledgement for this, but he was instead met with five, blank stares.

"Well?" Vortex said. "Go on."

"Yes, of course." He coughed lightly. "Well, since Megatron possesses so many different mines, and since the Autobots have a habit of finding them and plundering the energon within, I am confident that our own raid will go more or less unnoticed. Now, I have located a smaller mine that I believe will be of the least value…"

"No." Onslaught interrupted suddenly. "If we are stealing from Megatron, I will not be content scrounging his table scraps. We're going to attack the largest mine that his Decepticons have."

"Are… you sure that is the wisest course of action?" Starscream asked. "The last thing we want is Megatron catching on to what we are planning. At the moment, he isn't even aware of your existence."

"I'm sure." He said bluntly.

The seeker faltered for a moment before shaking his helm and shrugging. "Very well. As long as you don't draw attention to yourselves, I suppose we could use as much energon as we can get, especially for our secret weapon."

"The weapon so secret, you won't even tell us what it is?" Vortex grumbled.

"In good time. Now, I think the plan is set. Shall we begin?"

"Lead on." Onslaught said with a hint of amusement.

"Excellent. Give me a moment, and I will have a bridge prepared for you all."

* * *

And within moments, a ground bridge had been opened, with coordinates set to a massive energon mine hidden deep within the mountains of Nepal. Onslaught, Vortex, and Brawl were each geared up and prepared to infiltrate the mine, while Starscream readied one final briefing. Swindle was remaining behind since he was hard at work converting and upgrading the stolen human weapons into more powerful munitions, while Blast Off was staying because Onslaught had concluded that his alternate mode wouldn't be able to adequately maneuver in the underground mine.

"Typical." He had grumbled. "I can snipe a scraplet from twenty-five mega-ticks away, but the moment we have a mission where I can't fly, I have to stay behind."

Onslaught didn't humor him with a response.

"Now then." Starscream said to the three gathered Combaticons. "I'm sure you all know your mission. Remember, we cannot afford your existence to be revealed quite yet, so it is of absolute importance that you remain undetected. I will be sending you directly into their storage area, so it shouldn't be an issue, but you should still be wary of any working drones that might raise an alarm."

Brawl suddenly let out a loud, blatantly obvious groan. "What? I thought we were gonna get some action! You know, bash some heads in!"

"That goes completely against what we are trying to achieve here, Brawl."

"Why do I even have to come then?"

"Because you're the one who can carry the most crates." Vortex said with a smirk.

Brawl growled, but he managed to not retort with a threat.

"That raises a good question:" Starscream said, crossing his arms and looking at Onslaught. "Are you sure bringing him," he pointed at Brawl. "is a good idea? He is far from the subtle type."

"I'm sure." Onslaught said curtly, narrowing his optics down at the seeker.

Starscream huffed and was about to try to argue, but eventually just shook his helm. "Very well. In that case, I suppose it's time for you three to get started. Remember, we need as much energon as you can carry, but you must remember to first deactivate the tracking devices inside each of the cases, otherwise the Decepticons will be able to learn of our location. They are hidden in a secret hatch towards the bottom…"

"We know." Brawl interrupted with a growl. "We're not stupid, Starscream. We heard the plan, now how about you let us follow it?"

Starscream's optics narrowed, and he looked as though he was suppressing a snarl. "Of course. Then by all means, go ahead. Just remember; I have just as much invested into our goal as you five do. Probably more. So if you mess it up…"

"We will not mess it up." Onslaught said simply. "Do we have permission to leave now, sir?"

The grey seeker grumbled, face contorting into a frown, before finally nodding. "Of course. I won't hold you."

Onslaught grunted in mock gratitude before turning and walking towards the swirling ground bridge portal. He motioned to Brawl and Vortex to follow, and within seconds, all three of them had vanished into the depths of the portal.

"Disrespectful grunts." Starscream murmured as he watched the bridge disappear into nothingness. "I free them and give them all a second chance at life, and how do they repay me? Bah!" He threw his arms into the air. "I think it's time I showed them how they should treat their betters…"

* * *

"Alright." Vortex said as he stepped out of the ground bridge and into the cavernous mine deep below the surface. "Looks like Screamer actually had the right idea."

Indeed, the three Combaticons had been dropped off exactly where Starscream had said they would be; in the middle of a massive storage chamber deep within the mine. The stone walls of the chamber were smooth and well maintained, and great, steel columns and supports were secured all across the overhead rock, to prevent any and all underground collapses. At the far end of the chamber was the one entrance that allowed access to the chamber, and that was closed off by a heavy, reinforced blast door. There were almost certainly guards on the other side of that door, but the chamber itself appeared to be devoid of any Decepticon patrols. They likely thought it impossible for the Autobots, or anyone else for that matter, to bridge directly into the storage chamber, and as such focused their efforts on making sure no one took the more direct route.

And for good reason. Glowing cubes of energon were stacked up in piles that towered even over Onslaught, and they stretched out as far as the optic could see. This was, without a doubt, the most energon that any of them, even Onslaught, had ever seen in one place.

"Holy Primus." Brawl almost gasped. "Look at this! There's gotta be enough energon here to blow this whole rock up!"

"And then just enough get over-energized." Vortex agreed. "But there's no way we're gonna be able to take all of this back. It'd take days, and we'd probably get found out by then."

"We're not taking it all." Onslaught said simply.

"Well, obviously." Vortex said, leaning back to look at the top of one of the taller stacks of crates.

Brawl suddenly noticed that Onslaught had started walking away from the duo. "Hey, boss. Where are you going?"

Onslaught didn't bother to answer Brawl's question, and as he squeezed through the stacks of energon, careful so as to not knock any of them over, it appeared as though he was heading towards the blast door at the end of the chamber.

Vortex, as he watched the tall bot take the path towards the door, suddenly broke out in a wide smile. "You may get the action you were hoping for after all, big guy."

"Whaddaya mean?"

Before Vortex could answer, Onslaught had stopped in front of the door blocking off entrance into the rest of the mine. Without a word, he bent down and transformed into his carrier mode. The dual turrets at the back of his vehicle spun around and, after aiming the barrels at the heavy blast door, let loose a volley of explosive shots. The charges pounded into the door and, despite it being designed to withstand heavy physical impacts, couldn't stand against Onslaught's assault. The door caved in, and crashed to the ground with a resounding boom, leaving two very suprised vehicon guards to stare as Onslaught transformed back into his towering robot mode. Before either of them could even draw their weapons, Onslaught had leapt forward and grabbed both of their helms, smashing them together and crushing their processors. Both of them fell to the ground, instantly offline.

"Whoa, hold on. What are you…" Brawl tried to say.

"Vortex. Brawl." Onslaught ordered. "Prepare for battle."

"But I thought Starscream said…"

"Starscream's orders are now void. We're taking this mine and incapacitating every worker here."

"And what if they call reinforcements?" Vortex asked, though he believed he already knew the answer.

"Let them come." Onslaught said with a smirk.

Brawl let out a booming laugh. "Oh yeah! Let's crush some heads!"

"Combaticons." Onslaught said, drawing his weapons. "It's time we made some noise."

* * *

 **Author's note:** _Okay, I know I said that the Constructicons would make another appearance in this chapter, but... I'm bad at planning. I also write too much._

 _So I was left with a decision: Should I write out all I had planned and make this chapter twice as long as it should be, or cut it off a little before I had originally planned. I decided on the latter because it would mean less time in between chapters and get this one out to you all faster. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer._ _And don't worry, I PROMISE that the Constructicons will be in that chapter, so you can all hopefully look forward to that._

 _Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


End file.
